Dragon Eyes
by BoredBluejay
Summary: No one knew who she was. No one knew where she came from. And within the Akatsuki, no one cared. With them, she was at home.   OC, no romance.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in this story, not even my OC. She belongs to my subconscious. Everyone else belongs to Kishimoto-san.

* * *

Some called it the Devil's Cave. Others said it was haunted by the ghosts and spirits of those who had wandered in there and gotten lost, never to be found again.

Mothers told their children stories of the cave, telling them about horrible witches and monsters that would come out at night and steal naughty children from their parents. Older kids whispered about it, daring each other to go inside, although no one actually ever did, fearing the dangers of the cave more than the ridicule of their peers.

It was a small, unassuming cave, wedged somewhere in between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. But to those who lived in both countries, it was spoken of in reverence and in fear. Its fame had even spread to the other countries and it was said that even the kages themselves refused to enter the cave.

And then, one day, the cave collapsed. Quite suddenly, in fact. The Hokage, sitting in her office, was pouring herself a pot of coffee to help her recover from her hangover when the tower suddenly began to shake, causing her to spill the burning liquid all over her paperwork. She cursed, immediately looking out the window for the source, but could find nothing.

The Kazekage, poring over a scroll, looked up thoughtfully. _Sandstorm…or earthquake_, he thought, moments before his office began to tremble, knocking the pictures off his walls. He sighed, furrowed his non-existence eyebrows, and settled back in his chair to wait it out.

The Tsuchikage scowled as he noticed the hands of the messenger trembling as he handed him a scroll. "Stop shaking, boy!" he barked.

The messenger flinched, but replied in a steady voice, "It's not me, sir."

The Raikage glared at his dining table. The plates and bowls were shaking so much that he could barely eat out of them. With one swift move, he punched the table, smashing it to pieces. Seeing his meal on the ground did not help his mood. He punched a hole in a nearby wall.

The Mizukage felt the ground only shaking slightly, but it was enough to unnerve her. "What on earth?" she muttered. Scattered as they were, none of the islands of her country had ever had an earthquake. She frowned. She was never one to be superstitious- superstitions were for civilians, not ninjas- but even she couldn't help but feel anxious.

After hours of shaking, the dust finally settled. What was once a small and unassuming cave was now a large and unassuming pile of rocks. Some said that perhaps the spirits of the dead had a fight, causing the cave to collapse. Others said that perhaps a brave shinobi had gone into slay the devil within, sacrificing his life in the process. More practical folks said that perhaps the walls of the cave had weakened and were no longer able to support its weight.

A year passed by and the cave slowly began to fade from people's memories. No one looked at the pile of rocks and remembered the fearsome stories that had been told of _that_ place. No children dared each other to go up to the rocks and touch them. No one really thought about the earthquake that was so large, it had shaken all five countries.

A year passed by and the pile of rocks stood unmoving, a reminder that no one paid attention to of what had once been there.

A year passed by and a lone farmer was passing by as he did once a week to collect firewood for his family. He stopped, frowning as he noticed something move. He dropped his tools and rubbed his eyes. Was the sun playing tricks on his sight?

No. It wasn't. A large boulder at the bottom of the pile shifted to the side and a hand slowly reached out from beneath the rocks, scrabbling weakly for purchase. It touched solid ground and another hand followed, both palms pressing hard against the earth, as a grubby-looking kunoichi pulled herself up and out of the tiny space she had been wedged inside.

Carefully crawling forward on her elbows, she collapsed on the ground. Rolling over onto her back, she coughed. Her eyes blinked open. Golden irises rimmed with black stared up at the sky.

The farmer rushed over to her, gasping, "Miss! Are you alright?"

Weary eyes slowly turned towards him. The young kunoichi parted her lips as if to speak, but no sound came out. She licked her lips, trying again. Finally, she croaked, "Ow."

Then her eyelids fluttered shut and her head lolled to the side, dropping off into the darkness of oblivion.

* * *

Sorry that was so short! It is a prologue though...the chapters will get longer as we get into the actual story! Read and review!


	2. Chapter 1: Awake

Okay, so here it is! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns Naruto, not me.

* * *

"Her face is so white. Do you think she's-?"

"What, Mommy? What's wrong with her?"

"Hush. She's waking up."

Strange voices assailed her from all sides as she slowly became aware of her surroundings. She squinted; even though her eyes were closed, it was still very bright. There was an odd sensation, as if her body and her mind were detached and she was observing herself lying helpless on a mat. _Move your fingers_, she told herself, feeling her thumb twitch slightly.

"Look, her hand's moving!" someone whispered.

_Shut up_, she thought. Annoying strangers muttering about her like she couldn't hear, creating an irritating buzz in her ears that was starting to give her a headache-

Strangers. People she didn't know. All around her. Trapped.

Her eyes flew open and she leapt to her feet, shifting into a defensive stance, her right hand reaching down to her pouch to draw a weapon-

There was no pouch. There were no weapons. She frowned down at her leg. It was supposed to be there, it had to be.

Eyes flashing, her head snapped up to look at the strange people around her. A man, a woman, and three children. Clearly a family. The man had his palms out to demonstrate that he was not a threat, his hands shaking when she narrowed her eyes at him. The children were clutching their mother's skirt, hiding their faces against her legs. Her eyes darted around the room. Window, closed. Door, closed, but most likely not locked.

Just as she was about to make a break for it, the man spoke up, his voice soft and slow. "Look, we won't hurt you. We're here to help."

She bared her teeth in a snarl. She didn't trust him, didn't like the look in his eyes or the tone of his voice. Mouth dry, she forced herself to speak: "Where are my weapons?"

The man swallowed. "We took them away." She growled, taking a menacing step towards him. "I won't allow you to hurt my children."

Children. She scoffed. Every adult's weakness. She turned her eyes towards them, thinking over the possibilities. See if he'd tell her anything when-

Her stomach rumbled loudly and her knees buckled as the adrenaline was sapped straight out of her. "Ugh," she moaned, sinking to the ground, folding her arms over her stomach. Gone was the trapped wild animal, replaced by a weak and starving little girl. Eyes flashing, she dared anyone to attack her now.

The woman chuckled softly, breaking the tension in the room. "I guess you're pretty hungry, huh? Don't worry, I'll go get you something to eat right now."

The girl looked up at her, eyes wide. "Th-thank you," she whispered, feeling her cheeks turn red with shame.

* * *

Miles away, deep within the bowels of the earth, a large beast stirred. Its ear twitched, ignoring the myriad of noises of humans scrambling around on the earth and tuning in to one particular heartbeat. It sniffed once, examining the scent accompanying the sound. Its large yellow eyes opened and its lips lifted into a grin, revealing a set of huge pointy fangs. It had waited a very long year for this moment.

"Kirin."

The beast did not need to turn around to know who was standing there. "So you sensed it too, child."

"I heard the rumors carried on the wind," he replied. "Is it true?"

"Yes," the beast replied, grin widening. "Master is awake."

* * *

Settled down with a bowl of miso soup in front of her, she slowly began to eat, taking the time to enjoy every bite and resisting the urge to devour the entire thing along with the spoon and the bowl. Her jaws ached. What had she been up to? Why did everything hurt so much?

"What's your name?" a tiny voice asked from beside her. She looked up to see the three children staring at her. Apparently, they'd been doing so for a while.

"It's, uh…" Her voice trailed off as she realized she didn't know what her name was. "I don't remember."

The child, a bright-eyed boy with red hair and freckles, laughed. "Silly! You can't forget your name!"

The girl flushed. "Now, now, Takeshi, don't tease her," his mother said gently, coming into the room. She smiled warmly at the girl. "Since you don't have a name, we'll introduce ourselves first. My name is Saito Masaki and my husband's name is Atsushi. This is Takeshi."

The redheaded boy beamed at her. "Hello, nameless girl," he giggled.

"Kenta."

A round-faced and slightly pudgy boy with dark hair grinned widely. "Mommy named me that because I'm strong!"

"And this is Ren." Masaki placed her hand on the head of a small girl with dark brown pigtails. She had her thumb in her mouth and was staring at their strange visitor with dark, distrusting eyes.

"Nice to meet you all," said the nameless girl.

"What shall we call you then?" Masaki asked, placing her hands on her hips. "How about…Hitomi-chan?"

"Hitomi?" the girl repeated.

"Because of your…unusual eyes," Masaki smiled again, but the girl sensed something almost sinister in her tone.

Unusual? The girl peered down into her almost empty bowl of soup, gazing down at her reflection. Golden irises rimmed with black stared back at her. Were they unusual?

"Thank you," she finally said. "Hitomi is nice."

"Hitomi-nee-chan!" Takeshi cheered, tackling her from behind. Kenta followed. "Come play with us!"

Instinct nearly had her throw both tiny children over her shoulders, but she restrained herself in time and allowed them to drag her to her feet. She glanced down at the little girl, who was still staring at her with wide eyes. "Ren. Are you coming?" The little girl reluctantly trailed after them, thumb still in her mouth.

Atsushi entered the room just as Hitomi and the children left, sliding an arm around his wife's waist. "So she really doesn't remember a thing?"

"It doesn't seem like it," Masaki replied. "But her eyes…you saw them too, right?"

He nodded. "I think we have a…rather special guest on our hands."

Masaki smiled at him, but had to ask, "Shouldn't we just make sure that she really is-?"

Atsushi nodded. "Of course, honey. You're always right."

* * *

"Watch me, Hitomi-nee-chan!" Takeshi yelled, hanging by his knees from a tree branch.

"That's nice, Takeshi," she called. Months had passed since her arrival in the Saito household, but she still didn't remember anything. Instead of letting her brood around, Masaki had put her in charge of taking care of the children. Takeshi and Kenta had quickly taken to her and Ren, while distrustful at first, had been persuaded by her brothers that Hitomi was just like their big sister and would always play with them, which was the most awesome . Initially cold and distant, Hitomi had slowly begun to warm up to them, especially Ren, who was now tugging excitedly on her arm.

"Nee-chan!" whined the little girl.

"I can climb higher, nii-san!" Kenta called to Takeshi, scrambling up the tree after his brother.

"Be careful!" Hitomi couldn't help warning them, before turning to look at the little girl. "What is it, Ren?"

"Flowers!" Ren beamed, pointing to a large patch of daisies. "Pretty!" She pulled on Hitomi's hand. "Come on, nee-chan! Can we pick some for okaa-san?"

"Of course," Hitomi replied. "I'll show you how to make a necklace out of them too." Ren squealed and clapped her hands.

At first she tried to ignore the feeling. She could hear the boys laughing and yelling, Ren was right in front of her, happily chaining daisies together, and there wasn't a single person for yards around. She had to be imagining things.

Right?

Wrong. There it was again, as she glanced over her shoulder to make sure that the boys were still in sight. There was a hasty scuffle of feet as if someone was hiding from her when she turned her head. She was being watched.

"Nee-chan?" Ren peered up at her. "Are you okay?"

Hitomi blinked. "Yeah. Fine. Really." She smiled and after a while, the little girl smiled back at her. "Make sure you don't pick them all," Hitomi called, as Ren plucked a handful of flowers for the bouquet she was making for her mother. "Don't be selfish, alright?"

Ren beamed and nodded. "Hai!" Hitomi's face relaxed into a real smile.

That was when she realized she could no longer hear the boys. She immediately turned around. _Shit_. They were gone.

"What's wrong?" Ren asked as Hitomi scrambled to her feet.

"Takeshi and Kenta…" she murmured, her eyes scanning the area. "They went into the woods. Come on." She picked up the little girl, forcing her to drop her flowers. Ren began to cry as Hitomi ran for the woods…only to meet a hysterical Kenta burst through the trees, sprinting towards her.

"Nee-chan!" he cried, latching onto her leg.

Eyes flashing with alarm, she set Ren beside her brother and put her hands on Kenta's shoulders. "What's wrong? Where's Takeshi?"

Kenta began to sob. "They…they took him! They tied him up with a rope! And…and they were going to catch me too, b-but I ran away."

"Who's they?" Hitomi asked sternly.

"I-I d-don't know," Kenta blubbered. "There were these really big men…and-" he wailed loudly.

Hitomi hugged the little boy tightly, hushing his sobs. At least he was safe. But if anything happened to Takeshi…

When his bawling had been reduced to sniffles, she stood up, brushing off her skirt and drew a circle around the two children with the toe of her shoe, creating a chakra shield. Barely wondering what it was or how she'd known to make one, she knelt beside the two Saito children, speaking urgently. "Listen to me," she ordered, voice stern. "You have to stay right here, inside this circle. If you leave, those men may get you too. Understand?" Both kids nodded, eyes wide with terror. Hitomi realized she was probably scaring them, and gently wiped away their tears with her thumbs. "I'll be back soon with your brother. Okay?" She tried to smile, but her anger and fear kept pushing through her eyes, which they sensed.

"P-promise?" stuttered Ren.

"I promise," Hitomi replied. She ran off, pumping her arms and legs as fast as she could, darting through the woods. Trees and thickets grew close together, forcing her to leap over and dodge around them. Agile as a cat, she slipped between two trees that were about a foot apart. She paused for a moment to catch her bearings and scanned her surroundings. Changing her course slightly, she started running again. She could sense where he was, even if she couldn't hear him. Something, something besides instinct was guiding her actions.

The sound of a child crying twisted her gut. "Takeshi," she whispered, sprinting in the direction of the sobs. Abruptly, she found herself at the edge of the clearing and grabbed onto a slender tree to keep herself from skidding into it. Luckily, she hadn't been noticed yet. She took a deep breath and felt it catch in her throat as she began to assess the situation.

There was Takeshi, bound, but not gagged on the ground. His red hair was muddy and his face was scratched. For a moment, she thought that he was dead, with his pale face and strange stillness, but then he stirred, turning his head slightly in her direction.

He looked up and spotted her, eyes going wide. She motioned for him to be quiet, but he burst out, "Hitomi-nee-chan! Help me!"

Every eye in the clearing turned to her. In a flash, a man was by Takeshi's side, holding a knife to his neck. "Take a step forward and I'll cut his throat out right here," the man said menacingly, causing the boy to cry harder. Hitomi had no doubts that he would carry out his threat. None of the men seemed like the type to give into a child's tears or a girl's pleas.

_Think. Need a plan_. Her eyes swept across the clearing. Only three men. _Only_ three?

"Well, well, look what we've got here," another one of them sneered, walking towards her. She stayed firm, eyes meeting his steadily, even as he grabbed her chin in his gloved hand and jerked it roughly upwards. "Look at that pretty face. And a virgin too, I'll wager. Bet she'll fetch a higher price than the brat over there."

_Slave traders_, she realized, with a feeling that she recognized as relief. While dangerous, she could handle them easily. She was sure of it.

Frowning to herself, she tried to figure out where that confidence was coming from.

"Aw, you're no fun, man," grinned the man holding the knife to Takeshi's throat. "Let's keep her for our own enjoyment."

"You're both fools," snapped a third man, who appeared to be the leader. At least, Hitomi assumed so, judging by the large number of weapons strapped to his waist and- she winced- the whip in his hand. He came close to her. "Forget her face, look at her eyes. Do you recognize that? One of those babies alone could get us more than the ransom we fetched off the water daimyo's son."

Knife grinned wider. "Can we stab out her eyes, and _then_ keep her?" Glove laughed his agreement.

They were toying with her, she realized. Trying to scare her. She ignored them, mind racing as she tried to come up with a plan.

First, Knife had to go. If she attacked any of the others, he'd kill Takeshi. But if she killed him, what was to stop one of the others from threatening the boy as well?

What if she ran past them and killed him? With what, her bare hands? The fight would take much too long…she'd have to take him out with a long-distance attack and then run to Takeshi while the other two were distracted. But how could she do so without weapons? Suddenly, _only three_ started seeming more like _almost thirty_.

There was something in her eye and she blinked, trying to get it out of the way.

The air seemed to light up, sparks flashing. The hum of the vibrations of molecules, little currents surging between them. Lightning…in its most basic form. Could she control this and use it?

"Hey, girl, you listening?" Glove barked.

Of course she wasn't. She felt a strange churning sensation in the pit of her stomach, like something was being mixed together. Before she knew it, her hands were acting on their own, crossing and slashing downwards in Knife's directions.

Time seemed to slow as two streaks of blue lightning flashed through the air, striking Knife in the hand and the chest. He let out a strangled cry and dropped sideways, the knife falling from his hand. Not dead, but paralyzed, his face contorted in a look of shock. Two left.

Glove's hand released his grip on her face as his mouth fell slack. The leader just blinked. Their attention temporarily off her, Hitomi broke past them, running to Takeshi's side and placing herself firmly in front of him. She shifted her left foot about a pace in front of her right foot and picked up the discarded blade, holding it in front of her.

"Bitch," Glove snarled, hurling a barrage of kunai and shuriken at her. She deflected each one with her blade. From the ground, Takeshi let out a whimper of fear as a kunai landed a little too close to his head.

_I need to get him out of here,_ she thought. Was it her or was her vision clouding up? She squinted in frustration and then her eyes widened in surprise when she realized what she was seeing.

_Thermals. _Differences in the temperature of air, allowing for it to move from warmer areas to cooler areas, creating wind.

Again, there was that churning sensation in the pit of her stomach, but as she reached her hand towards the boy, no lightning appeared. Instead, a gentle breeze carefully lifted Takeshi off the ground and set him down in a safe location. Then she flicked her fingers and sharp blasts of wind cut through the boy's bonds, freeing him.

She turned back towards the slave traders and smiled serenely. Twirling the kunai around her index finger, she sent it flying towards Glove, nailing him in the eye.

"Fuck!" the man gasped, clutching his face as blood streamed down his cheek. Hitomi felt her pulse quickening as she stared at the blood. For some reason, she wanted, _had_ to see more of it.

"Had enough?" she asked. Takeshi flinched at the strange tone of her voice. She sounded so savage, so feral, that suddenly, he was a lot more scared of Hitomi than he was of the slave traders.

"Nee-chan," he whispered.

The leader charged at her, drawing a sword as he ran. Hitomi didn't even flinch as he came towards her swinging rather clumsily at her head. At the last second, she dodged and plunged her kunai deep into his chest, ignoring the blood that spattered all over her clothes and twisting the blade slightly, making sure that it sliced through his heart.

He gagged, hands reaching as if to pull the knife out, before tumbling to the ground. Terrified eyes stared blankly into space and blood bubbled out through his lips. Happily dead. Hitomi viciously yanked her knife out of his chest, examining the blood covering the blade, like a wolf appraising its kill. She parted her lips, moving her tongue as if to lick the kunai, when-

"Nee-chan!" Takeshi screamed in terror. "Please, stop it! I want to go home!"

Hitomi dropped the kunai as if it had burned her. "Kami-sama…" she whispered. She backed away from the slave traders, then turned around, snatching up Takeshi and running as fast as she could, not daring to look behind her. She had to get out of there, the forest must be driving her crazy.

Kenta and Ren looked up and squealed in delight as they saw Hitomi bursting through the trees, their oldest brother safe under her arm. "Nee-chan, you did it!" Kenta beamed.

"Nee-chan!" Ren cheered.

Hitomi barely heard them. Her mind was still on the fight, focusing on the moment before she stabbed the leader through the chest. Not for one second had she thought about mercy. Not for a moment had she wanted to give him a quick and painless death. "No," she gasped, burying her face in her hands.

She'd been _smiling_ as she plunged that knife through his heart.

"Kami-sama," she whispered again, as the three children exchanged confused and scared looks. What kind of monster was she?

* * *

Masaki screamed as Hitomi entered the house, clothes splattered with blood and a haunted look in her eyes. "Hitomi-chan! What happened? Are you hurt?" She reached towards the girl, who flinched and pulled back.

"I'm fine, Masaki-san," she replied brusquely, brushing off the woman's concerns. "It's not my blood."

Those words did nothing to comfort Masaki as she glanced down at her pale-faced children, then back at the blood-soaked girl. She grabbed Hitomi by the arms, screaming, "What did you do?"

"It was just a little fight," Hitomi replied.

"With who? What? What happened to my children?" Masaki was practically yelling.

"Someone tried to kidnap me, okaa-san!" Takeshi cried. "And nee-chan saved me!"

Masaki looked at Hitomi as if to confirm the story, but the girl merely shrugged. "How?"

"She was like a ninja or something!" Takeshi grinned, his previous fear of the older girl completely forgotten. "And then she waved her hands and I flew!"

At that moment, Atsushi walked in. "You flew? Don't be silly, people can't fly." He ruffled the boy's red hair and headed to the kitchen to wash his hands.

"I'm not lying!" Takeshi whined. "It's true! Right, Hitomi-nee-chan? Right?"

Atsushi came back into the room and stared at the girl, who avoided his look, tracing her fingertips along the floorboards. "Masaki, how long until dinner?"

"About an hour or so," Masaki replied. "Why?"

Her husband nodded. "That should be enough. I'm taking Hitomi on a short trip." He turned to her and she shuddered. There was something unpleasant about the look in his eyes. "There's something I need to show her."

* * *

The sun was sinking down behind the treetops as the two approached a large pile of rocks. "This is it," Atsushi announced, gesturing vaguely towards it. When Hitomi looked at him in bewilderment, he added, "This is where I found you."

Hitomi approached the rocks slowly, aware that Atsushi was watching her every move. Something shiny caught her eye and she bent and picked it up. It was a long strip of cloth, with a piece of metal in the middle. There must have once been a pattern on the metal, but it was gone now, apparently having been viciously scratched off.

_"The kages?"_

She jumped at the sound of the childish voice, looking around wildly. However, except for Atsushi, there was no one there. Writing it off as her imagination, she examined the object in her hands again. For some reason, it was familiar, but she didn't remember what it was. It was important, though, to a certain group of people. It was important to-

_"No, not the kages. Their councils."_

This time, it was a deep, masculine voice talking to her. He sounded…he sounded like he was choking on something, like he was injured. She frowned and listened harder. Where-?

The voice spoke again: _"The kages are only tools in the hands of the councils, child. Just like the rest of us ninjas. They seek power, at any cost. And we must obey them, so that they can achieve this power."_

"Ninjas," she whispered. Atsushi narrowed his eyes.

_"We do as we are told. We have no choices, no free will. That is how we are supposed to live. But you…"_ Then came a hacking cough and a groan of pain.

_"Father!"_ The childish voice again.

"Father?" Hitomi repeated in disbelief.

_"Tell me, child, have you suffered?"_

_"W-what?"_

_"You don't need to answer. I know you have." _A cry of pain, feral and agonized. Hitomi felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. _"Child…I don't have much time left. I need you to understand that as a result of our battle today, you are the master of our jutsus, the leader of our clan." _

Hitomi could sense tears coming into the younger person's eyes. _"The leader of what? What clan? You're all dying!" _

_"Hai,"_ came the weary reply. _"But we made this choice…to save our friends. To protect you. You're free now. The councils assumed you would obey them if you did not know the truth about us. But now you do. You can choose your path. I wish I could be with you…take my Ryuu no Me and remember that I'll be protecting you from above." _

Ryuu no Me? Dragon Eyes? She subconsciously touched her eyelids in wonder.

The deeper voice cried out in anguish again, whispering almost desperately, _"Child, I don't have much time left. I…I'm sorry for all the pain you have been through." _

_"Otou-san…"_

_"Ami, child…I love you. Never forget that."_

"Ami," the girl murmured. Was that her name? Was that her memory? "The councils…"

A hand on her shoulder made her yelp. "Sorry," Atsushi laughed. "I didn't want to disturb you earlier. It seemed like you were in some sort of…trance." When the girl didn't respond, he cleared his throat. "Anyways, it's late now. We should head back."

She just nodded and followed him. Only then did she realize that it was completely dark outside and the moon was high overhead. "How late is it?" she asked.

"It must be getting close to eleven," Atsushi replied.

She blushed. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he chuckled. "What did you see in there?" She looked up, frowning at the improperly curious (in her opinion) tone creeping into his voice. Why did he want to know? Rather than ask, she again said nothing.

* * *

After a very late dinner, she put the children to bed, then asked if she could speak with Atsukshi and Masaki for a moment.

"Of course, darling," Masaki replied. "What do you need?"

She took a deep breath. "I need to leave this place. Tonight."

"So soon?" Atsushi asked.

She nodded. "It's urgent."

"Why?" Masaki asked. The girl frowned as she usually did when she believed she was being asked too many questions. "Where will you go?" She shrugged.

Husband and wife exchanged glances before Atsushi got up and left the room, returning with a small pouch. "My weapons," she gasped, reaching for them. He didn't hand them to her, however, appearing to be checking through the bag to make sure everything was there. "I can't thank you enough for my kindness," she continued to Masaki. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Well," Atsushi replied and she looked up in alarm at the malice in his voice. "You can leave us one of your Dragon Eyes."

Barely catching her jaw in time, she turned to his wife, who was nodding her agreement. "Even though we made a lot of money tipping off your location to those slave traders, just one of your eyes will bring in even more."

"Two would be ideal," Atsushi added.

The girl barely heard them as the pieces began to fall into place. The name they had given her. The way they had observed her movements. How the leader of the slave traders had recognized her instantly.

"You know who I am, _what_ I am," she snarled. "You knew all this time and you never told me."

"Better to be naïve and stupid than to know the truth," Atsushi replied coolly. He drew a kunai from her pouch and held it up. "Now, quietly let us take your eyes or we'll cut your throat as well."

From his stance, she could tell that he had some basic training. But _basic_ would not be enough to defeat her this time.

"Atsushi-" Masaki began, sounding worried this time.

"She won't give even one up willingly, the selfish bitch," he snarled. "So we'll have to take them by force." He frowned as the girl began laughing. "What's so funny?" She shook her head, laughing harder. "What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at myself," she replied, still giggling. "You're right. I was naïve and stupid to trust you. I was naïve to believe that anyone could be trusted." She smiled. "How can anyone believe in trust, when all humans are inherently greedy and selfish? We all put ourselves first, before anyone else."

Raising her hands in front of her, she added, "So don't blame me, Atsushi-san, when you die tonight."

With a growl, he threw the knife at her, aiming straight for her throat. A split second before it nicked her skin, she snatched it out of the air. Flabbergasted, Atsushi stammered, "H-how did you…you just?" He pointed a trembling hand at her.

"Yes?" she asked coolly, twirling the knife around her finger before pocketing it.

"You caught it with your eyes closed!"

"And you're out of your league," she replied. "Let's finish this quickly and quietly now. We don't want to wake up the children."

Atsushi growled and threw the rest of her weapons at her. Nimbly dodging each one, she suddenly disappeared from sight. Reappearing right in front of him, she grabbed his wrist. As she spun around, she brought his elbow down hard on her shoulder, using it as a lever to dislocate his arm. She clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his scream of pain, which Masaki echoed, probably twice as loudly.

She smiled again, the expression on her face sickeningly sweet as she whispered, "I haven't seen any blood yet…disappointing." She drew back a fist, forming it into palm strike, as she landed a blow to his chest. Her touch was gentle, but the shockwave practically shattered his ribs.

He gagged and coughed, blood virtually spraying out of his mouth as he fell to the ground. She laughed in delight, clapping her hands together. He couldn't speak or scream, couldn't get his lungs to draw in air. Eyes wide with terror, he stared helplessly up at her as she stood over his head, moving as if to crush his windpipe with her foot. He shook his head slightly, lips barely moving as he tried to gasp out: _"No."_

She feigned confusion. "I don't understand."

Two strikes, and it was over. One to throat, snapping his spine and another to his already injured chest, stopping the heart.

She stood up, blood dripping from her fingers as she sighed. "I always get blood on my hands." She callously wiped them on Atsushi's shirt, not even bothering to close his eyes as she turned towards the terrified Masaki.

"Hitomi-chan," Masaki whispered.

"Maybe I shouldn't have killed him," the girl conceded. "After all-" her eyes hardened, practically glowing in the dim light "-it was your plan, wasn't it, _Masaki-san?_"

"Hitomi-chan, please," the woman begged.

"The name is Ami," she replied.

At least her death was painless, the girl thought, removing her hand from the woman's mouth and examining her throat, slashed through to the jugular. She wiped the blade on Masaki's skirt.

"Nee-chan," a tiny voice said.

She turned around to see Ren standing in the doorway, eyes wide. "Had to do it," she said shortly.

Ren said nothing as she watched Ami gather up her weapons and store them into her pouch. The older girl brushed past her and headed for the front door. As she reached for the knob, Ren spoke up again: "Nee-chan."

Ami turned around to look at her, one hand resting on the doorknob. "Yes, Ren?"

"I hate you," the little girl said.

Ami looked at Ren's bright innocent eyes, only beginning to be tainted. The fierce scowl on her face was softened by years of familial love. Innocence that Ami had lost long ago. Love that she had never experienced. She laughed. "Don't say that, kid. You don't know what hate is yet."

Opening the door, she stepped outside into the cool night air. The wind blew her hair back from her shoulders as she knelt and slammed her fingertips on the ground.

A large black beast appeared beside her, its yellow eyes peering into her golden ones. "Ami-sama." The beast bowed low, rising on its hind legs to touch its snout to her feet. "My name is Kirin."

"Kirin," Ami repeated. "You're…"

"Yes," the beast replied. "A dragon."

The girl watched with wide eyes as the beast rose to its feet, stretching its magnificent wings out behind it. Its horns glinted in the moonlight as it raised its head towards the sky. "Look at that," it called softly, gesturing towards the moon with its nose. "Full moon tonight. Last one before the autumnal equinox." Ami nodded. "Do you know what people call it?"

"No," she replied.

"The blood moon," Kirin replied. The girl laughed.

Blood moon. So named because its unusually bright light allowed hunters to see and catch their prey. Appearing only once a year at the perigee of the moon, mysterious things were said to happen under its watchfulness.

Ami climbed onto the dragon's back, smiling as Kirin pushed off from the ground, flying off into the night. It was hunting time.

**To be continued...**

* * *

And there you have it!

Notes:

Hitomi means "pretty eyes" in Japanese.

The dragon's name, "Kirin", is also the name of a mythical beast in Chinese and Japanese folklore. The name has nothing to do with Sasuke's attack or the actual mythical beast. My friend suggested it and I thought it sounded cool, so I used it.

Confused? Flabbergasted? Please read and review!


	3. Chapter 2: Blood Moon

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!

And now to answer to some people:

Mitzzi- haha, sorry if I didn't make Ren's age clear. She was supposed to be four or five years old, which was I didn't have her attack Ami.

Dr. Stilla Live- thanks for pointing it out! I'm terrible with proofreading. .

Anyways, onto the next part!

* * *

Gaara frowned, rubbing his temples as he felt the beast within him acting up tonight. He had gotten much better at suppressing its urges, but tonight, Shukaku's bloodlust was clamoring loudly for attention.

"Kankuro," Gaara called suddenly, startling his older brother, who was just passing by his doorway.

"Yes Gaara?" the puppeteer asked, poking his head in through the doorway. He frowned at the strained expression on Gaara's face.

"What's the phase of the moon?" Gaara asked.

"It's a full moon," Kankuro replied. "Are…are you alright?"

Gaara nodded curtly. "I will be fine. Please close the door." Kankuro did as he was told and Gaara sighed, closing the blinds on his window to block out his view of the Blood Moon.

_Blood…_ groaned the demon.

_No_, Gaara snapped. No way would he give in to the tailed-beast's urges again.

_Smells good…_Shukaku murmured.

To his horror, Gaara realized that the smell of blood was drifting in from under his door. He wavered, wondering if he ought to go investigate or if it would be better to stay in his room to prevent the scent of blood from unleashing the Ichibi. Yet at the same time, he remembered that the Ichibi had often tricked him into believing he smelled blood, when in reality, there was none. Ultimately, he retreated to his room, shut and plugged the door and sat on his bed, refusing to sleep. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Suna woke up without a council the next day.

Of course, it took some time for them all, even Gaara, to realize this. The Kazekage sat in his meeting hall, forehead creasing slightly in annoyance as he checked the time and stared expectantly at the closed door, waiting for the council members to walk in at any moment. It was normal for his advisors to be a few minutes late, but as a few minutes was now stretching into half an hour, he was understandably frustrated.

But then again, if the advisors did not show up, he would not have to sit through another dull and inane two hour long meeting. Instead, he could pay a visit to the academy. He nodded to himself. Yes, it had been a while since his last visit. Perhaps-

"Kazekage-sama!" The door slammed open to reveal a rather frazzled-looking Baki.

Gaara frowned as his pleasant train of thought was interrupted, but merely turned towards his former sensei, silently asking what the matter was. "The council members are all dead," the man gasped out. As Baki described the carnage, Gaara listened impassively, fiercely trying to suppress the beast's excitement.

"Search the grounds for any clues," Gaara ordered when Baki was finished, though he doubted any had been left behind. If only he'd decided to investigate last night. But the smell had been too strong and he may have ended up killing the council members himself.

Annoying as they were, those old men with their supposedly wise words and their slow slurring speech, Gaara knew that the council was vital to running Suna. He'd have to appoint a new one as soon as possible. He could just imagine the mountain of paperwork now…

Who could he appoint? Baki, of course, the man was very loyal to him and he was definitely a skilled shinobi. Gaara had actually considered appointing him to the council earlier and now thanked Kami that he hadn't done so. He should probably appoint Kankuro as well, as his brother was a fairly skilled ninja. Perhaps Temari as well. He'd need all the strong ninjas he could find.

Even as he thought that, a pang rang through him and he dropped his head into his hands in a rare moment of dejection. How had the assassin slipped in without anyone noticing? Were his ANBU really that weak? Gaara had always known that his ninjas couldn't compare with those in Konoha, but to have a catastrophe like this…

Worse still were the implications of this deed. Had the assassin come only to murder the council members? Or was this a threat directed at him? Gaara's frown deepened.

"Hey, Gaara." It was Kankuro this time and he sounded unusually serious. "I think you need to see this."

Gaara nodded, rising from his seat and sternly punting Shukaku into the further recesses of his mind. He followed his brother up the stairs to the floor with the advisors' rooms. He started to turn into the first door, but Kankuro held him back, shaking his head. "It's the last room on the left."

Frowning, Gaara headed down the hallway. He'd thought Kankuro was planning on showing him the corpses, but apparently, he was wrong.

The moment he entered the room, the Ichibi practically squealed with delight, causing the stoic Kazekage to wince. When his head had stopped ringing from the noise, he looked around the room.

Blood was splashed across the walls, pooling on the ground and congealing in the cracks of the floorboards. In the middle of the puddle of blood lay one of his advisors. His throat had been slashed through and his ribs looked broken. There were cuts and bruises along his arms, as if he had tried to fight back, only to be viciously taken down by his attacker. The worst part, however, was his white, fear-stricken face, his eyes staring up in terror, his mouth opened in a silent scream.

Gaara turned to Kankuro, saying, "This is what Baki reported to me. I have heard that the other advisors look much the same."

"Look more closely," his brother replied and Gaara squatted down next to the body, examining it with furrowed brows. "His forehead."

Gaara reached out a hand and pushed the man's hair back from his forehead, eyes widening in surprise. There, painted in blood, was a familiar symbol. Two rocks, the larger one slightly hidden by the smaller one.

The Kazekage jumped back, straightening and turning around quickly. He tried to keep the worry out of his voice as he called, "Send a message to Iwagakure immediately!" As Kankuro scurried off, he looked back down at the body.

Gaara had never been one to feel emotions, but now, as he stared at the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Rocks, a sense of dread crept up his spine, which was only emphasized by Shukaku's giggle of glee. The assassin was toying with them.

* * *

Onoki roared with laughter when he heard the message. "That little worm thinks he can scare me with a message like that?"

"But sir," the unfortunate man who had decoded the message stammered. "The Kazekage asks you to take it seriously. The entire Council of Suna was wiped out in one night. And a message was left behind that indicated the assassin's next target was y-"

"Nonsense!" the Tsuchikage snapped. "I'll tell you the real problem. Suna's forces are weak. The shinobi are weak. Obviously, the intruder would have an easy time slipping past the guards. Nothing like that can happen here in Iwa. We're the strongest of the shinobi nations!"

"Along with Kumo," one of the ANBU standing beside the Tsuchikage muttered. Luckily for him, Onoki didn't hear, too pleased with bragging about his own forces.

The decoder bowed his head. "Very well, Tsuchikage-sama. I shall send your reply to the Kazekage."

"And tell that kid to stop poking around in our business," Onoki snorted. "He needs to sharpen up his shinobi first."

Chakra masked and camouflaged into the wood, Ami perched on a rafter, casually twirling a kunai around her finger. She smirked. _You old fool_, she though, studying the Tsuchikage's mostly bald head.

Twisting a lock of hair between her fingers, she accidentally sent a little stream of wind towards his desk, cracking his cup just as he reached for it to pour himself some tea. Onoki blinked at it for a moment and frowned. It must be a coincidence.

* * *

The cat sat in the dark hallway, green eyes gleaming in the dark. Every door was closed. Some guards were posted outside each door, which was unusual, but the cat paid no attention. The guards' loud yawns nearly deafened her and she twitched an ear in annoyance, wondering why these foolish humans did not go to sleep if they were really this tired.

A soft scratch caught her attention and she whipped her head around to see a small mouse creeping down the hall. It paused and sniffed, examining some food morsels that had been dropped on the floor.

Just then, a young masked ninja came up the stairs, saying something to one of the guards. The guard nodded and headed the way the ninja had came, leaving the ninja standing at the door. The masked person opened the door and went in.

The cat padded over softly, tail lashing as the unsuspecting mouse nibbled at some crumbs that a careless genin had dropped. She crouched, shifting her weight onto her hind paws and prepared to pounce-

A muffled cry came from behind the door the ninja had entered. While the other guards took no note (they had failed to notice the exchange between the ninja and their comrade earlier), the cat and mouse felt the fur on their necks rising.

The door opened again and the ninja came out. The cat's back arched as she hissed as she realized that the smell of death clung to the young shinobi the way a flea clings to a warm body.

The guard soon returned and bowed to the shinobi, who then moved on to the next guard. Once the guard left, she turned, winked at the cat, and entered the room.

* * *

Purple with anger didn't even begin to cover the shade of Onoki's face as he fiercely chewed on his bottom lip, staring at the corpse before him. His mind was reeling with the realization that a) the _extremely young_ Kazekage had been right, b) the assassins had slipped right past _his_ shinobi, and c) his back _ached like hell_.

"Get me a chair!" he finally barked out and a chunin rushed out of the room to grab one, glad to be away from that hellish scene.

The Tsuchikage took in a deep breath, wincing as his back nearly gave out, and shook his head, sighing as he looked around the room again. For once, he seemed to have been transformed into the old man that he really was.

That only lasted a moment as his head snapped back up, all business again. He barked, "Search for the intruder on the grounds of the palace and throughout the village! If you find the assassin, bring him to me. I will take care of him personally." He frowned, daring his ANBU to argue with him. They all gulped and stared down at their feet.

"In addition, gather search parties to scour the country for any trace of the assassin," he added. "Move out! We have work to do!" He whirled on his heel and stomped out of the room, just as the chunin returned with the chair.

The chunin rolled his eyes and hurried to follow the Tsuchikage. In the process, he accidentally kicked aside a kunai that had been left on the ground. A kunai dropped by the assassin.

A kunai pointing straight towards Kumogakure.

* * *

"You're being reckless, Ami-sama," Kirin scolded, pacing across roof of the Raikage's home.

The girl merely sulked, sitting with legs crossed and waiting for the sun to set.

Kirin shook her head. "Don't ignore me, like that. Your methods will only get you caught. You walk into the lion's den without bothering to even hide yourself and walk back out covered in blood. Do you have a death wish?"

"Nobody has noticed so far," Ami replied.

"With those little clues you have been leaving behind, do you think they will remain oblivious much longer?" Kirin snapped, her ears flattening against her head as her eyes narrowed at her foolish young master.

"I don't want them to be oblivious, Kirin," Ami replied. "It wouldn't be any fun otherwise."

Kirin rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Ami-sama, your father gave me specific instructions that I was to protect you. You are throwing your life away like this. You are-"

"It's time," Ami interrupted her. "I will be back within the hour, Kirin."

Kirin snorted, smoke puffing out of her nose as Ami camouflaged herself into her surroundings and disappeared. The old dragon shook her head. _I'm getting much too old for this_, she sighed.

* * *

The jonin posted outside the eldest advisor's door was bored. A had heard some rumors about Suna and Iwa. Even while the Raikage dismissed it all as nonsense, he nonetheless doubled the guards for the council…just in case. He scoffed. The kage believing in some foolish rumors just proved that the world was going to the dogs these days.

A shadow zipped past him, vanishing again into the darkness. Immediately, the jonin was alert. "Who's there?" he called. Nothing.

He took a step forward, peering into the darkness. "I know you're there. Show yourself."

A click behind him made him realize that the door had just closed. Wait. Behind him? Door…?

"Shit!" The shinobi raced to the door and struggled a bit to unlock it. He flung the door open and the assassin looked up, blood splashed across the front of his tunic. Slowly, he let the body he was holding drop to the floor.

"You…" the jonin growled, lunging forward.

With a flick of the wrist, the assassin sent the bloody kunai flying towards him. The shinobi instinctively dodged it and flanked back. The blade had lodged into a world map. "You missed," he snarled, turning back towards the assassin. "You-"

He was gone. The room was empty, save for him and the gurgling body on the floor. He walked over to the body first and closed his eyes for a quick prayer. Then he bent down and shut the wide glassy eyes, trying desperately to ignore the blood still dripping out of the advisor's throat.

The shinobi then turned to the kunai to pull it out of the wall. The assassin must have been scared away for the night, but the blade was bound to have some clues. As he reached a hand towards it, he froze, blood running cold.

The knife was lodged in Kirigakure, blood splattered all over the Land of Water. "Kami-sama," he whispered.

Something sharp gently touched his skin and he felt a small hand grab his shoulder. "Don't move or I'll stab you through," a surprisingly high-pitched voice hissed in his ear. His eyes widened and in spite of his fear, one thought raced through his mind: _The assassin was a _girl_?_

"I'd heard that Kumo ninjas were as strong as those of Iwa," the voice continued. "I'm disappointed that neither of you were much of a challenge. Now, go tell your Raikage to send a message to Kiri. I want them to be paranoid of every stranger that walks in through their gates. I want them to call out every shinobi within their ranks."

"Why?" the jonin squeaked out and winced as he felt the blade prick his skin, warm liquid oozing down his neck.

Somehow, the assassin realized that he was referring not to her request, but to the murders she was committing. "Revenge," she whispered. He felt her warm breath against his neck, brushing against the tiny cut she'd just inflicted on him. "Blood is beautiful. Isn't it?"

The shinobi lost it and screamed.

* * *

Mei smiled as she listened to the council talk urgently about the warning that had received from A, proclaiming that they were all going to die because some dreadful assassin was after them.

This was no surprise. After all, Mei was usually smiling, no matter what the circumstances were. She smiled when she sentenced criminals to death. She smiled when she threatened her advisors to follow her orders. She smiled when she had her hand around the throat of an attacker and cheerfully bid them goodbye.

"The message told us to make sure every shinobi in the village is ready to deal with this assassin," one advisor said.

"It also described the way Kumo's council members were murdered in great detail," another added.

Mei picked up the letter, reading that part out loud: "'Throats slashed, arms broken, lots of internal bleeding.'"

"Thank you for the reminder, Mizukage-sama," the first advisor said sarcastically.

"I believe that A-kun may have been overreacting," Mei said, serious despite her grin. "I know his shinobi are strong and I know that he is strong as well, but it is impossible to expect them to be vigilant at all times."

"That's one of the traits of a shinobi, Mizukage-sama," another council member argued. "They must be alert at all times and expecting any sort of danger."

The door opened and a maid walked in, bearing a tray with a pot of tea and some teacups. "Ah, thank you," Mei beamed at her. "Just the thing to help us clear our brains."

The maid smiled and began pouring tea. When one of the council members reached for it, she quickly held out a hand to stop him. "I'm sorry sir, but it's really hot right now. It would be best if you waited two minutes or so to drink it."

"Ah, okay," the advisor replied, nodding his thanks to her.

However, by the time she reached Mei, she had run out of cups. "I'm so sorry, Mizukage-sama!" she gasped. "Please forgive me. I will get you another teacup this instant."

Mei waved her off. "Don't worry about it," she replied. The maid curtseyed and scrambled off.

Almost at the same time, the council members took a sip of tea. Instantly, they began choking and coughing. "Is everyone okay?" Mei asked.

"My chest…it's on fire," one council member gasped.

"Help…I'm drowning!" another cried.

As Mei watched, they tumbled off their chairs and fell to the ground, thrashing and tearing at their throats. "Someone, help!" she cried.

The door opened and the maid walked in with another teacup. "Ah, so it really does work," she said calmly. "Extract of wolfsbane. Treated in a certain way, it can cause the victim to suffer hallucinations of their worst fears. Death comes as a release."

She bent down near one man and checked his pupils. "He has perhaps ten minutes to live. There is no way to extract the poison."

"You're the assassin A-kun warned me about," Mei whispered.

The maid nodded and her features changed to those of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl. "I am sorry I had to change my methods this time. However, I had to when you didn't take his warnings seriously enough and act more quickly."

The smile dropped from Mei's face for the first time as her hands formed a seal, preparing to take down the girl and avenge her advisors. The girl waved her off. "No need for that," she said. "My fight is not with you, Mizukage-sama. Besides, I am very busy and I have one more stop to make."

"Konoha," Mei gasped.

"Very good," the girl replied. The ground rumbled and the wall cracked, allowing the girl to punch through it.

"Who are you?" Mei burst out.

The assassin tilted her head as if thinking about the question. "Me? I am nobody of importance. But you may call me Ami." With that, she leapt through the hole in the wall. Mei raced over to catch her, but only arrived in time to see this Ami person flying away on a large black beast.

* * *

"They're pulling out every trick they have," Ami commented, peering down on the village from where she stood on the top of the Hokage Monument.

"And I suppose you're excited about that," Kirin huffed. She would have put her hands on her hips if it were possible, but instead settled for tapping her claws on the rock impatiently. "And I suppose you are going to pull off the assassinations tonight?"

"Naturally," Ami replied. "Even if their preparations aren't complete, I'm getting rather bored waiting."

"Ami-sama," Kirin said in a tone that forced the girl to look at her. "What will you do when you have finished your mission?"

Ami shrugged. "I don't know." She bounced on the balls of her feet. "Who is that?" she asked, pointing at an old man with bandages wrapped around his face. "He has more guards than the Hokage ever does."

"That's Shimura Danzo," Kirin explained. "He was friends with the Third Hokage and he leads an underground group called Root."

Ami frowned. "That's not a very good pun."

"Be serious, Ami-sama," Kirin snapped. "He is one of the best shinobi you will ever face. He has stopped many assassination attempts before."

"Then why does he have guards?" Ami asked.

The dragon sighed. "Perhaps they perceive that you may be a real threat and are taking extra precautions."

"Why does he have those bandages?" Ami continued.

"They say that he hides the Sharingan beneath them," Kirin explained.

"Sharingan?" Ami tilted her head in confusion.

"A dojutsu that allows the user to copy jutsus they see and perceive chakra within an individual," Kirin told her. "There are other abilities associated with them. I do not know the details."

Ami grinned slowly. "He sounds like a worthy opponent. I will enjoy fighting with him."

* * *

An ANBU with a cat mask nodded at the dog-masked ANBU guarding Danzo's door. Without a word, they exchanged places. The cat-masked nin waited for the other to leave before silently slipping into the room.

There lay her victim, sound asleep on a bed, his folded hands resting on his chest. There were no bandages on his face. Aside from the rising and falling of his chest, he looked very much like the corpse he would soon become.

Ami silently drew a kunai and took a step forward. At that moment, Danzo's right eye snapped open and looked right at her. He'd been feigning sleep.

"Remove that mask, Cat," he demanded. "Let me see who you are."

Ami's response was to toss the kunai at him, which the old man blocked with ease. She lowered her mask enough to use Ryuu no Me, but without letting Danzo see her face.

Lightning clashed through the air as she manipulated the currents of electricity between molecules and began hurling thunderbolts at Danzo. The old shinobi took a deep breath and exhaled, the wind cutting through the air like a sword, dispelling the attacks and nicking Ami's shoulder as she attempted to dodge the attack.

"It's no use," Danzo informed her calmly. "I can see through your attacks."

_Lightning doesn't work against wind,_ Ami thought furiously. _Wind is weak against fire_. She snapped a finger, igniting oxygen molecules in the air and forming a fireball which she hurled at Danzo, who easily avoided it. Fireball after fireball shot through the air, each one barely missing its mark.

"Are you convinced yet?" Danzo asked. Without warning, he charged forward, unwrapping the bandages on his arm as he did so. Ami's eyes narrowed, wondering what he was going to do.

Ten red eyes stared back at her and she could barely hold back a gasp of horror. "The Sharingan?" she whispered.

"That's right," Danzo replied. "Normally, I would not resort to this, but I need to defeat and capture you quickly."

Jet-black flames shot towards the girl, following her around the room as she tried to evade them. Danzo turned, his Sharingan eyes tracking her every movement. A blast of fire nearly caught her hair and she ducked, rolling under his desk for a moment to catch her breath. She could feel the heat from the flames scorching her back even from several feet away. "What the hell?" she snarled.

"Amaterasu," Danzo said smugly, by way of explanation.

It had to be some stupid trick of his weird red eyes. Ami frowned, narrowly dodging again. She noticed how intently he was following her with all eleven eyes. Perhaps…

Hand flying to her pouch, she plucked out two knives and flung them at Danzo. One flew towards his face, while the other was aimed at his shoulder. As she'd hoped, Danzo jerked back to avoid the weapons. The flames disappeared. Ami clenched her hand, taking a moment to celebrate her small victory.

"Not bad," Danzo acknowledged. "You figured out its weakness."

_And I figured out your weakness as well_, Ami thought. Danzo was panting hard and his chakra reserves were taking a massive toll from his use of those techniques. Apparently Danzo realized this as well, because he immediately began his next attack.

The leader of Root formed some handseals and trees shot up out of the ground, surrounding Ami and trapping her. She quickly took a deep breath and exhaled, using the wind to lift herself up and out of the trees, landing lightly on the windowsill.

The window flew open and a hand grabbed her ankle. "It's over," a toneless voice said from outside the window. "Surrender now."

The door burst open and several more shinobi rushed in, each one armed with a tanto. "Danzo-san, are you alright?" one ninja asked anxiously. The old man merely nodded and began wrapping up his arm.

A quick glance out the window showed Ami that all the ANBU in the village were gathered around this building and waiting on the nearby rooftops. The hand on her ankle tightened when her hand inched towards her weapons pouch.

"I wouldn't do that," Danzo informed her. "Surrender to us and we may be merciful. If you fight, we will have to kill you." When Ami made no move to do either, he continued, "I must say, you have some interesting skills, but you are weak. Had I not needed to end the fight quickly, I would not have used my Sharingan or the Mokuton."

Still, the girl did not move. Danzo sighed and folded his arms together. "Very well. We shall take your silence as surrender." He snapped his fingers. "Take her in."

Ami kicked fiercely, forcing the shinobi holding her ankle to let go. She snatched off her mask and tossed it aside, her golden eyes gleaming in the dark as they glared at Danzo. For the briefest moment, a shiver ran up his spine as he looked into those eyes, reading their promise of vengeance.

The shinobi outside rushed forward to apprehend her as Ami vaulted out of the window and scrambled up to the rooftop. The night air was cool and quiet, picking up as she used it to generate a massive gust of wind that lifted her off the ground. Shouts came from behind her and she rolled to one side as a barrage of weapons flew at the spot she had just been.

Kirin flew down from the top of the Hokage Monument, scooping the girl onto her back. Neither said a word as they flew out of the city and Kirin pretended not to notice the angry tears gathering in Ami's eyes.

"Danzo-san!" a shinobi raced into the room to report to him. "We're sorry, sir! We lost her! Some…some creature came and flew away with her on its back!"

"Quite alright," Danzo said quietly. "So, there's still one of those accursed Ryuu Nin, the Dragon Ninja, remaining."

* * *

Questions? Comments? Weirdness? OOC-ness? Read and review as usual!


	4. Chapter 3: First Impressions

Hi everyone. Sorry the update is late, but now that classes are starting again, I'll probably take longer to update.

To answer a question that Dr. Stilla Live had last time: Sorry! If I told you that, I would have to kill you. And...well, you'll see.

And now, the Akatsuki finally appear!

* * *

Ami's hand flashed and three kunai sailed through the air. Two of her attackers fell down, clutching at the handles protruding from their chests, while the third howled, his hands flying to his face. "This is the third time I have been attacked within the last two days," she stated.

Her leg snapped through the air in a crescent kick and brought the still-living guy to the ground, her foot smashing his head into the dirt. She stepped on his cheek, staring down into his remaining eye as she asked, "Who sent you?"

"No one sent us," the guy stammered.

"Then why are you after me?" she snapped.

The guy mumbled something that she couldn't hear clearly and she added just a little bit of pressure to his throat. He gasped and coughed, choking out something that sounded like "Bingo Book." Ami frowned. What was a Bingo Book?

"What do you mean?" she asked. The guy couldn't speak. Seeing as he wouldn't be of any further use to her, she crushed his windpipe. She picked up his bag and rummaged through it, spotting a small book with swirls drawn all over the cover. Curious, she pulled it out and flipped it open. She frowned at what she saw.

Each page contained information on a different ninja, collectively labeled as "missing-nin." While Ami didn't know what that was, she gathered that they were criminals wanted by the villages that they originated from. Everything about them was listed, from their height, weight, and eye color, to their styles of fighting and idiosyncrasies.

She stopped on one page, staring down at the picture. "Bloody" Ami, age: either fifteen or sixteen. Black hair and golden eyes rimmed with black. Tilting her head from side to side, she examined the drawing of her from every angle. She looked like she was ten or eleven, not fifteen. Was she really that scrawny? Were her eyes really that sunken? Did her arms and legs really look like toothpicks?

Finally getting over the (_totally unflattering_) picture of herself, Ami turned to read the description of her. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't much.

_Height: 5'2"_

_Weight: unknown_

_Village of origin: unknown_

_Abilities: skilled with nature transformation_

_Favorite weapon: kunai_

_Special skills: possesses the Ryuu no Me, a dojutsu as rare as the Rinnegan_

_Rank: S_

_Status: missing-nin_

_Bounty: 55 million ryo_

Ami turned the page, but that was it. Wait. She read that last line again. And ten more times after that. _55 million ryo?_

No wonder so many people were attacking her! Who wouldn't attack a scrawny (_she gnashed her teeth_) little girl with a huge sum on her head and eyes that were rumored to be worth even more? She had to change her appearance! But how?

Just then, two feet came into her line of vision and she sensed a huge amount of chakra. Glancing up, she spotted an orange-haired man with piercings all along his nose and ears. He watched her with bulls-eye patterned purple eyes.

Instictively, Ami's hand reached into her weapons pouch and closed around a kunai. "Have you come for my head?" she asked. "Or my eyes?" The steady gaze he was giving her was inexplicably unnerving.

The man didn't answer and she narrowed her eyes, drawing the knife. "What do you want?"

He tilted his head slightly. "You're scared, aren't you Ami?"

"What do you want?" she repeated angrily. How dare he insult her?

His lips curled into a tiny smirk. "As I thought. You're weak."

* * *

_-Earlier-_

"There's a new Bingo Book out," Kakuzu announced as Pein called the meeting of the Akatsuki to order.

"Any information about the jinchuuriki?" Pein asked.

The shinobi shook his head. "None."

"Anything interesting at all this time around?" Kisame asked. "The last few issues barely had any updates."

"Well, Zabuza got taken off the list, as did that girly kid that always hung out with him. Um…Orochimaru's bounty increased. And…" He flipped a few pages. "There's a kid with a dojutsu as rare as Leader-san's," Kakuzu replied, flipping to the page and holding it up for them to see.

"'Bloody' Ami?" Kisame read.

"Fifteen? She fucking looks like she's eleven!" Hidan snorted. "She's flatter than a-"

"Hidan!" Konan interrupted him firmly.

"Well, she is!"

Pein resisted the urge to bang his head on the table and instead settled for clearing his throat. He was the leader, after all, and leaders did not bang their heads on tables. "What does it say about her?"

"Not much," Kakuzu replied, passing the book around the table.

"It doesn't even say what she did, un!" Deidara fumed.

Sasori shook his head. "Pitiful."

The Bingo Book finally got to Pein, who immediately zoomed in on three words: "Ryuu no Me?"

"Didn't they all die out?" Kisame asked. Itachi's eyebrows narrowed slightly.

"That was the rumor," Pein agreed. He studied the picture.

Itachi blinked and leaned forward slightly. "Leader-san, are you implying that you want her to join us?" The other members of the Akatsuki stared Pein, shocked.

Pein said nothing. He didn't have time to before a bouncing ball of orange energy exploded into the room.

"Whee! Hi Leader-san! Hi everyone!"

Deidara groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Not again."

Hidan cringed. "Yo, Leader, didn't you fucking send him on a suicide mission?"

"Apparently, the suicide part didn't work," Sasori commented as the orange-masked shinobi flung himself onto Deidara.

"Deidara-senpai! Tobi is so glad to see you!" Tobi chirped, bouncing up and down and not realizing that he was strangling the blond. "Tobi missed everybody!"

"Tobi, I think you're choking him," Kisame said nervously.

"No, keep hugging him," Sasori ordered. "If he dies, I can get a new partner." Hidan cracked up until Kakuzu whacked him over the head.

"Ow! Mother f-"

"_Anyways_," Pein growled. "Tobi. What are you doing here?"

Tobi beamed and held up a rather squashed flower. "I found it, Leader-san! I found the extremely-rare-practically-extinct mountain flower you asked me to find!" He tossed it over his shoulder as he began to bounce again. "Can I join now? Can I? Can I?"

Pein glanced around the table at the horrified looks on the Akatsuki's faces. Only Zetsu looked relatively unperturbed, as he was the only one who could even stand the masked psycho. "Very good work, Tobi," Pein finally managed, again resisting the urge to bash his head against the table.

"Yay!" Tobi clapped his hands. "Tobi is a good boy!"

Kakuzu growled at Zetsu. "I seriously want to fine you all your money and worldly possessions for coining that phrase."

Zetsu gulped. "Well, I didn't think he'd say it all the time. **Fine me if you dare, Stitchy**."

"What did you just call me?" Kakuzu snarled.

"Zetsu, run!" Hidan hollered and the plant-nin made good use of his ability to teleport, high-tailing it out of there as fast as he could as Itachi and Kisame struggled to hold Kakuzu back.

"Zetsu! Get back here!" Pein snapped, rubbing his temples as he felt a migraine coming on. He briefly wondered how much damage having to take painkillers every single day was doing to his paths, before shoving that idea out of his head. He had more important matters to focus on.

Zetsu appeared, smirking at Kakuzu, who had been tightly bound to his chair by Itachi and Kisame. Itachi sported a new black eye, while his partner's nose was bleeding heavily. Relatively light injuries, considering the damage Kakuzu usually did when he was mad.

Deidara rubbed his neck, taking deep breaths to recover the air he'd lost when Tobi had strangle-hugged him, his face finally beginning to return to its normal color. "Can I blow that freak up, Leader-san? Can I? Can I?"

Sasori impatiently tapped his fingers on the table. "Is this meeting over yet?"

"Just wait a little longer, Sasori," Itachi replied.

"I hate waiting," redhead grumbled. For the hundredth time, Deidara wondered how his danna could hate waiting so much when, because he was a puppet, he had all the time in the world.

"Senpai!"

"Agh! Get away from me! Katsu!"

"Don't you dare damage my walls! Do you have any idea how expensive repairs are?"

"No! Tobi! Dob touch Sam'hada!" This said with a hand covering his nose.

"What's that, Sharky?"

"Shuddup, Hidan!"

"**Mm. Blood. Delicious**."

"SILENCE!" Pein slammed his palms down on the table. The room immediately went quiet. Itachi handed Kisame a handkerchief to wipe his nose.

Pein sighed. "Obviously, we're having some issues and this meeting is going nowhere. You are all dismissed."

The room was empty in seconds. Konan remained behind, placing a gentle hand on Pein's arm. "Pein…"

"I'm fine, Konan," Pein replied. "This is just…draining."

The kunoichi just "hmm"-ed and adjusted the flower in her hair absentmindedly.

"Konan," Pein finally said. "You know that Tobi…"

"He's only messing with us because he enjoys watching us struggle. He has no intentions of joining yet," Konan finished for him, nodding. "But you know…you're right. We do need another member." She got up and left the room, leaving Pein alone with his thoughts.

Pein subconsciously flipped the Bingo Book open to the picture of Bloody Ami again. Unflattering and unrealistic as the picture was (really, who had arms and legs like toothpicks?), the artist had somehow managed to capture the hatred in her eyes. His lips almost quirked upward in a smile (but he was the leader and _evil_ leaders did not smile), scanning the picture again.

_A little girl with a grudge, _he thought to himself. _At least she could not possibly make life around here more insane._

* * *

_-Current-_

Ami glared at the pierced guy, but he seemed to have no intention of attacking her. She shrugged and went back to her training, which was what she had been doing before she had been so rudely interrupted.

Tying her scratched-up forehead protector over her eyes, she drew several shuriken out of her pocket. Her work with kunai had progressed until her accuracy was about 99.9%, but her ability to use a shuriken was still sadly lacking. After discovering that her accuracy actually _improved_ when she had her eyes closed, she'd started blindfolding herself every time she began target practice.

She turned towards the clump of trees she had drawn targets on earlier, feeling the pierced guy's swirly eyes boring into the back of her head. Taking a deep breath and forcing herself to ignore him, she measured the distance based on the whistling of the wind as it rushed past the trees and then towards her ears. She drew back her arm and threw.

"Pathetic." There came that sneering voice from behind her again and she ripped off her forehead protector in annoyance.

"Why are you still here?" she demanded. She glanced quickly at her targets and noticed with frustration that she'd just barely missed them.

"Your form is atrocious," the man continued, coming over to her and pulling a shuriken out of her bag. He demonstrated. "Middle and ring fingers through the hole in the middle. Brace your index finger and pinky against the prongs and your thumb on the other side." He threw the projectile, nailing the target in the center.

"Who are you?" Ami snapped, growing more irritated by the second.

"My name is Pein," the man replied. "I have an interest in you, Bloody Ami."

_Creep_, Ami thought, immediately backing away a few steps.

"I've observed you for the past few days, evaluating your skills," Pein replied. "It seems you are only able to defeat sleeping old men and E-ranked bounty hunters."

Ami scowled at him, half-wondering if there even was such a thing as E-ranked. "You've been stalking me?"

"You also need to work on general awareness of your surroundings," Pein added. "Your taijutsu is effective, but not excellent. Your chakra control is lacking. Your-" But here, he was interrupted with a question from Ami.

"What's chakra?"

Pein raised an eyebrow. "Above all, it seems you are lacking even Academy-level shinobi training."

Ami's face flushed. "If you're just going to continue insulting me, I think that's my cue to leave." Turning away, she summoned Kirin, who appeared beside her.

"Nagato-san?" Kirin blinked, studying the orange-haired man. "You have changed a lot these past few years."

"It's Pein, Kirin," he replied, bowing respectfully to the dragon.

"Wait," Ami snapped, glaring daggers at her summon. "You know him?"

"It's a long story, Ami-sama," Kirin said, quickly dismissing the question. "Why are you here, Pein-san?"

"Evaluating Ami's performance," he replied. "We are looking to recruit her."

"Oh sure, answer the question when _she_ asks it," Ami grumbled, huffing and crossing her arms over her chest. Kirin and Pein exchanged amused glances. Despite everything, Ami was still a child.

"And what is your evaluation?" Kirin asked.

"He thinks I suck," Ami replied.

Pein barely suppressed a smile as he retorted, "Your words, not mine." He turned to Kirin, explaining, "She lacks basic shinobi knowledge. Once you look past that, she is quite skilled."

A deep rumble sounded from Kirin's throat, which Ami recognized as the dragon's equivalent of a laugh. "You cannot blame her, Pein-san. She has no memory of what happened before she was pulled out of the cave."

"I pulled myself out, thank you," Ami huffed.

Pein nodded indulgently. "In that case, a refresher course is needed."

"I don't need anything from you," Ami snapped, stomping away from him. "Come on, Kirin. We need to find somewhere quiet to train."

"How long will it be before you are interrupted by bounty hunters again?" Pein asked. Ami stopped walking and frowned. "You won't have a moment of peace, not on your own, at least."

"You said you wanted to recruit me," Ami replied after a moment. "For what?"

"I would prefer to call it a trade," he informed her. "You want revenge and for that, you need training. You need to learn what chakra is, to use it, to master your kekkai genkai, to improve your taijutsu, to-"

"I get it," Ami snapped, interrupting him firmly. "I have a lot of stuff to work on." She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know so much about me, anyways?"

Pein just smirked. "The Rinnegan can see everything."

"The what?"

Kirin sighed. "His eyes have special abilities too, Ami-sama. He can help you master your own kekkai genkai."

Ami frowned. "My what?"

"Never mind," Kirin groaned.

Ami turned back to Pein. "So you're willing to train me?" He didn't nod or shake his head, and she took his silence as confirmation. "What do I have to do?"

She hadn't rejected his offer to train her. That was promising, at least. "You need to help me achieve my own goals," he replied. "World peace."

The girl burst out laughing, leaning against Kirin just to keep herself standing upright. Kirin twitched in annoyance, but said nothing as Ami choked out, "World peace? And I thought I was the naïve one!"

"What do you mean?" Pein asked.

Ami looked up incredulously. "Human beings are inherently selfish. We value ourselves more than anyone else. We can't trust each other."

"You do not trust me?" Pein asked.

"No," Ami replied. "And you wouldn't offer to train me either, at least not without something to gain from it." She shook her head. "Peace…it's impossible."

"As is your daydream of assassinating Danzo with the little power you have," Pein told her, knowing that he'd struck a nerve.

"That's hitting below the belt," Ami growled. She stuck out her hand. "Fine. Deal."

Smiling to himself, Pein took her hand and shook it.

* * *

"Is this meeting over yet?"

"Danna! It just started, un!"

"Where is fucking leader?" _Thump_. "Ow, Kakuzu! What the f-"

The doors finally opened and Pein walked in. "Thank you for all being here. Allow me to introduce the newest member of Akatsuki, Ami." He stepped aside and they all stared at the girl standing beside him.

She was, if possible, even smaller than they had imagined. Her stringy black hair hid most of her face from view, but she brushed it aside and glared around at them, scowling fiercely. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyes were large. Her arms and legs, while not toothpicks, were still thin. She looked more like a starving prisoner of war than an S-ranked missing-nin.

Hidan, unsurprisingly, was the first to break the silence. "I take it back. She's fucking _flatter _than a-"

"Hidan!" Konan snapped.

"Well, she is!"

Itachi was studying her extremely skinny frame with a frown on his face. "When did you last eat?"

Ami glared at him, but spat out, "I don't know."

"My guess is three months," Zetsu commented. "**Too bad she's all bones. Barely an appetizer.**"

"Wha-?" Ami stared at the green-haired guy.

"Split personality disorder," Kisame explained casually. "There's good Zetsu and bad Zetsu." As if that were reassuring.

"Maybe she's anorexic," Kakuzu suggested. "That would save a lot on the cost of food."

"Is this meeting over yet?" Sasori complained.

"_Wait_," Pein ordered firmly. Sasori grumbled, but complied. "Step forward and introduce yourselves. Names, likes, hobbies, stuff like that." There was an awkward pause as they all exchanged glances. Nobody wanted to go first. Pein sighed. "Fine. I'll start. My name is Pein. You will call me Leader." He turned to Konan, who guessed that it must be her turn.

"My name is Konan," she said. "My hobby is making origami."

"Itachi," said the Uchiha. He gave no more information.

"Kisame," the shark-like nin told Ami with a sarcastic bow of the head. "I like chopping people up."

"Hidan," the gray-haired shinobi said. "I'm a Jashinist."

Ami looked confused. "A what?"

"Don't ask," growled the green-eyed man with the mask. "Kakuzu. I'm in charge of our money."

"By 'in charge,' he means 'fucking obsessed with,'" Hidan snorted. This earned him a solid thump over the head. "Ow! What the f-"

"Deidara," the blond shinobi interrupted quickly. "I like art, un." He waved at Ami and the mouth on his head wagged its tongue.

"Sasori," the red-haired puppet growled. "I also like art."

"Zetsu," Zetsu said. "You already know my name. I like plants **and eating people.**"

"Eating…" Ami's voice trailed off.

"I don't eat the other members," Zetsu assured her. "**Unless they bother me with their existence.**"

Ami turned to Pein accusingly. "You told me this was your evil organization. You didn't mention that I'd be signing up for the freak show."

"Considering who you are, you have no right to call them freaks," Pein snapped sternly.

"Hey! What do you mean by 'them'?"

Deidara looked around. "Speaking of freaks, where's Tobi, un?"

"He's on another mission," Konan replied. "To the Land Deep Deep Beneath the Ocean."

"He's dead, yeah?" Deidara said hopefully, perking up.

"No," Pein replied and the blonde's shoulders slumped. "Ami, introduce yourself."

The girl shrugged. "Why? You already did."

Hidan snickered. "How are you going to deal with this bitch, Leader?"

Pein just sighed and rubbed his temples. _So much for not making life around her more insane._ "Ami, go to your room." Ami just stared at him expectantly. "Right. Kisame, show her to her room."

"Come on, kid," Kisame gestured towards the door with his head and Ami obediently followed him out of the room.

As soon as she was gone, the others swarmed Pein with questions. "Quiet!" he snapped, but he couldn't even make himself heard.

"SHUT UP!" Konan hollered and the others immediately quieted down.

Pein sighed. "Thank you, Konan."

"Any time," his partner replied.

"Now, if you have a question, raise your hand and ask it when I call on you," Pein said in a voice that suggested he was talking to five-year-olds or lunatics. Zetsu raised his hand. "No, you cannot eat her." Zetsu lowered his hand, disappointed. Deidara raised his hand next. "Deidara?"

"Why did you have her join, un?" he asked. "I thought I was replacing Orochimaru."

"You were," Pein replied. "But we have always needed ten members because the statue has, well, ten fingers. We were just never able to reach the quota."

"So which ring is she wearing?" Hidan asked. Pein glared at him until Hidan grumbled something about "shitty leaders" and put his hand up.

"Much better," Pein replied. "Konan?" Konan stepped forward and handed him a ring, which he held up for the others to see. It was a slate blue ring with the word "sky" etched on it.

"Orochimaru's ring," Sasori murmured.

"Where did you find it?" Kakuzu asked.

"I had Konan take it back," Pein replied. _And rip the damn thing off the snake bastard's hand. _"So Ami will have Orochimaru's old position. She will temporarily not be given a partner."

"What? No fair!" Hidan complained. "How come she can't be his partner?" He pointed at Zetsu.

"Because I'm like two people, **dimwit**," Zetsu replied.

"What did you call me?" Hidan demanded.

"Quiet!" Pein hollered. But it was too late. Another fight broke out and Pein retreated back to his room to fetch some painkillers for his migraine.

* * *

From the other side of the castle, Ami heard a crash. "What's going on?"

"Probably one of the guys getting pummeled by Hidan," Kisame shrugged. At the girl's raised eyebrow, he added, "You get used to it after a while."

He led her up another flight of stairs and turned down into a long hallway. "This is where all of us, except for Pein and Konan, sleep. They have their own rooms downstairs. Where there's actually heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer," he grumbled.

Every single door was scratched or stained with a substance that looked suspiciously like blood. Every door except one. "That's Itachi's room," Kisame explained to her. "This one's yours." He pointed to the room next to it which was missing a door altogether. He turned the nonexistent knob and opened the nonexistent door for her with a mock bow. "After you."

Glaring at him, Ami walked inside…and froze. The inside was worse than the outside. "Um…where's my bed?"

"Deidara accidentally blew it up, trying to kill Itachi," Kisame replied.

"I see." Ami's voice was dangerously controlled, but Kisame didn't seem to notice that. "And why is my window lying in a pile of glass shards?"

"Kakuzu accidentally broke it when he kicked Hidan through it," Kisame explained.

"Uh-huh." Her eye twitched. "And my walls are shredded to pieces because-?"

"Sasori was trying his puppets out on Hidan."

"Hm." Twitch. "And the stains on the floor are from?"

"One of Hidan's rituals, of course."

"O-of course." Ami took a deep breath. "One last question." He nodded. "Where is my door?"

"Oh." Kisame rubbed the back of his head. "Well, Tobi stole my laundry and locked in here, so I knocked the door down to get it back."

"Ah."

"Ami?"

"You idiots!" Ami punched Kisame, sending him through the nonexistent door. "You go tell 'Leader' that there's no way in heaven, hell, or purgatory that I'm sleeping in here!"

The girl stomped back into her room, slamming the nonexistent door behind her. She sat down on a patch of non-stained ground and wrapped her arms around her legs, glaring at a non-gouged out spot on the wall.

Kakuzu came in a little while later with a neatly folded cloak and hat. "This is your Akatsuki uniform," he announced. "You only get one, because I'm not making you another one and wasting materials. If it rips, you can fix it yourself. Where should I put it?"

"How about on my desk?" Ami muttered sarcastically.

"There is no desk." Obviously, he didn't know much about sarcasm.

"Never mind," she grumbled. "Just put it on the floor somewhere." Kakuzu shrugged, dropped it in a pile in the doorway, and walked off again.

Itachi found her in the same position about half an hour later. "Ami?" he called and she jumped viciously. "I knocked." She scowled. "It's dinnertime."

"I'll pass," she muttered. "Before I wind up with squirrels in my burger and caterpillars in my salad."

Itachi sighed. "I know it seems that everyone is trying to give you a hard time, but I promise that they're all doing their best to welcome you into the group. The least you could do is come join us for dinner."

Ami was a victim of a very strong guilty conscience. So even though she had nothing to feel guilty about, Itachi's words sent a pang to her stomach and she reluctantly rose to her feet, following him down to the dining room. On her way out of the door, she grabbed her new Akatsuki cloak and pulled it over her shoulders. She might as well start wearing it now, if she was going to have to stay here.

Konan smiled politely at Ami as she entered. "I'm glad you decided to join us, Ami-chan."

The girl raised her eyebrows at the suffix, but replied, "Uh, glad to be here, Konan-san." She crossed her fingers behind her back.

"You sit down there, next to Sasori," Itachi told her. The puppet smiled politely, but Ami did not return the smile. After all, this guy had gouged up her walls with a chainsaw or something.

The meal began civilly enough, with everyone keeping their hands to their own plates and a polite conversation kept continuous by Pein and Konan.

Unsurprisingly, Hidan was the first to ruin it.

"Damn it, Deidara! Your fucking hand mouths are drooling in my plate!" he hollered.

"They are not, un!" Deidara protested, blushing slightly. "Quit being a baby and just eat it!"

"Who's a baby, Deidara-_chan_?" Hidan growled, bits of food spraying out of his mouth and landing on Sasori's plate.

Sasori stood up and headed for the trashcan, tossing the whole thing inside. "What the hell? You're wasting money!" Kakuzu bellowed at him.

"I'm not eating anything with his germs on it," Sasori snapped, pointing at Hidan. "Idiocy is contagious."

Kisame burst out laughing until Hidan threw a slab of fish at him. "Shut it, fish freak!"

"Hey! Don't waste food!" Kakuzu snapped. Detaching one of his arms, threads flew from the place it had been, attempting to strangle Hidan, but catching Zetsu instead.

"Hey! **You will pay for that**," Zetsu growled, tugging at the threads to free himself.

"Take that, zombie!" Kisame yelled, lobbing the salad bowl at Hidan. His vision impaired by the fish stuck to his face, he missed his target entirely.

Failing to realize this, Deidara made a handseal and cried "Katsu!" The bowl exploded, spraying bits of lettuce and cucumber all over…Itachi. Deidara paled and he tried to shrink back in his seat. "Uh-oh."

Itachi's eyes flashed open, three-pronged shuriken gleaming in his irises. "Tsukiyomi!"

"No!" Deidara yelped, diving behind Kakuzu, who ended up getting caught in the genjutsu. Ami watched in amazement as the masked nin scampered into a corner of the dining room and rocked back and forth, hugging his knees and whimpering, even after Itachi's eyes returned to normal.

"What the hell was that, you she-male?" Hidan roared, lunging across the table to throttle the blonde.

Deidara hastily tossed out a couple more little clay birds. "Katsu!" he screamed, causing the birds to explode, along with several more dishes.

Zetsu laughed manically. "This is fun. **We get to clean up the bodies when they're finished.**"

As a full-on food fight began, the Akatsuki leader glanced down the table to see how Ami was taking it. Ducking a chicken leg that Deidara had thrown at Zetsu for attempting to eat his leg, Pein noticed that she was shrinking back into her seat, shoveling down her plate of food as fast as she could, apparently wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. She gulped down her glass of water, then wiped her mouth on a napkin.

And that was when a misfired riceball thrown by Sasori hit Kisame in the face. "Sasori, you bastard!" the shark-nin bellowed, grabbing Samehada and slicing the table in half.

Pein and Konan both scooted back as the table collapsed inwards. A giant pot of tomato soup catapulted into the air, flying straight towards the completely oblivious Ami. Before anyone could call out a warning, the pot landed on her head, emptying its contents over her and knocking her out of her chair.

The table went deathly quiet as Ami spluttered, yanking the pot off her head and gasping for air. She silently wiped the soup off her face as she climbed to her face. Waves of killing intent were rolling right off her, but she took a deep breath and calmed herself, heading towards the door.

Without warning, she spun around and punched Hidan in the face. "What the heck is your problem? Keep your loudmouth shut and eat quietly, damn it!"

Passing Deidara, she slapped him across the face, screaming, "You! Don't blow up the food while people are still eating!"

Turning to a startled Zetsu, she kicked him in the stomach. "No cannibalism! Geez!"

She punched Sasori for provoking Hidan and wasting food ("And by the way, idiocy isn't supposed to be contagious. But I guess it is now!"), whacked Itachi over the head for "making Kakuzu act like a baby", and delivered an uppercut to Kakuzu's stomach for trying to strangle his partner that sent the older nin flying and crashing into the ceiling.

Finally, she turned to Kisame, a sweet smile on her face. She approached him calmly…before kicking him right in the groin. Kisame's eyes watered and he tumbled to the ground, all the males in the group wincing as they watched the scene. "Where the hell is your common sense? Don't freaking cut the table in half!" she screamed.

Realizing that everyone was staring at her as if she'd just grown an extra head and five arms, she squeezed the tomato soup out of her hair and stomped out of the dining room.

A choking sound at the head of the table caught their attention and they turned to see a sight much more terrifying than an angry Ami. It was the sign of the zombie apocalypse. The takeover of the world by alien life forms. The sun exploding into a million pieces, plunging humanity into darkness forever.

Pein was laughing.

"Oh my Jashin," Hidan whispered.

"I'm scared," Kisame squeaked.

Even Konan looked mildly perturbed as she reached over and touched the Akatsuki leader's shoulder. "Pein?"

The orange-haired shinobi finally managed to sit up and wipe the tears out of his eyes. He sighed, still smirking at his wide-eyed and terrified subordinates. "A bunch of S-ranked criminals just got told off by a fifteen-year-old girl. Congratulations."

The furious looks on their faces were almost as priceless as their shocked ones. Maybe, just maybe, having this girl around wouldn't be so bad.

But of course, Pein had forgotten about Murphy's Law.

* * *

Pein laughing? Even I'm scared.

Something unclear or confusing? Please let me know! Read and review!


	5. Chapter 4: Unwelcome

Hey people, I'm made with some more Akatsuki fun. Now that I'm done introducing my character, the storyline begins!

**Disclaimer:** As much as I love the characters in Naruto, I don't own any of them.

* * *

Biting back a whimper of pain, Ami climbed back to her feet. _My tailbone's either bruised or fractured_, she growled to herself, glaring at the tree she was supposed to be climbing as if everything were its fault. _He had to pick the tallest tree in the whole forest._ It seems that karma was happily biting her in the butt after the events of last night…

_

* * *

_

Earlier that day

Itachi had just settled down at the breakfast table with a nice mug of coffee. He sighed, looking out the window. The sky was clear and cloudless, the sun just beginning to peer above the horizon. The sight was so beautiful that almost brought a smile to the stoic shinobi's face. The red and purple of the sunrise was slowly fading to blue and it promised to be one of those days that would have everyone beaming and being pleasant to each other.

This promise was broken 2.65 seconds later with a loud explosion, followed by a high-pitched shriek. A few moments later, Deidara stumbled into the dining room, where he promptly collapsed on the ground, laughing so hard that tears came out of his eyes.

He was soon followed by a rather disgruntled Ami, her hair singed and her face blackened by soot. She glared at Deidara as she patted out the flames on her new cloak, looking like she was tempted to kick him. Deciding against it, she headed to the fridge to pour herself some milk.

As soon as she opened the door, she jumped back with a scream, which was followed by a howl of laughter coming from inside the refrigerator. Itachi didn't have to look to know what had happened.

Kisame popped his head in a few moments later. "Did it work Hidan?" he called.

"Like a charm!" the grey-haired nin replied, still guffawing loudly. "Man, you should have seen the look on your face. Serves you right, bitch!"

Kisame cackled as he went to the fridge and pulled out the Jashinist's head, holding it carefully. "It's payback time, kid," he smirked at Ami, whose face was so red, Itachi could have sworn smoke was rising off her cheeks.

"Welcome to Akatsuki, un!" Deidara called over his shoulder as he ran out of the room.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as Ami chewed on her bottom lip. "Sleep well?" he asked calmly.

She glowered at him for a moment before realizing that he wasn't mocking her. "Like a baby without a bed, blankets, or a lullaby," she deadpanned.

"Did you ask Leader-san?" Itachi asked.

"Well, duh," Ami snapped. "And he told me to ask Kakuzu-san, who said-" she put up her fingers in quote marks "'Hell no.'"

Pein entered the room and nodded a greeting at Itachi before saying, "Ami, outside on the training field in five minutes."

"But I haven't had breakfast-"

"Skip it." In a poof of smoke, he disappeared.

Ami sighed and turned to Itachi. "Where's the training field?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ami arrived at the training field, panting and out of breath. After attempting to follow Itachi's awful directions ("Turn east at the third corridor from the second flight of stairs on the left of the hidden library"), she'd pleaded with Sasori for help, only to have him direct her to Zetsu's private garden, where _no one_ was _ever_ allowed unless they wanted to be lunch. As Zetsu chased her out of the garden, Ami yelped over her shoulder that she really needed to find the training field or Pein would kill her. Feeling bad, Zetsu finally gave her correct directions that actually made sense.

To make a long story short, she was late.

Pein wasn't there, but she found a note attached to a nearby tree. _You were late and I could not waste time waiting for you. I am leaving you with a simple training exercise. Climb this tree without your hands, using only chakra and your feet. See you at lunch. –Leader_

"What the hell is chakra?" Ami snapped angrily, balling up the note and throwing it to the ground.

She huffed, then glared at the tree. Very carefully, she lifted one foot and placed it against the tree. Then, she raised her other foot.

The moment she did that, she crashed to the ground on her butt.

Ami wasn't psychic. She couldn't predict the weather and she couldn't read minds, but for a brief moment, she could see the future: this was going to take a heck of a long time.

_

* * *

_

Current

"You've made little progress." Ami scowled as Itachi appeared behind her. She ignored the Uchiha's calm, monotonous voice in favor of attempting to walk up the tree again. _One…two…three…_ Improving… _Nine…ten…damn it!_ She yelped as her butt was reintroduced to the earth.

"Ow…"

Itachi snorted. "Struggling?"

"I'm not struggling!" Ami snapped.

"Hn." Itachi crossed his arms and leaned against a tree, not too pleased at having to supervise Ami's "training."

The girl huffed as she glared at the tree again. Obviously she was doing something right, as she could now climb as high as the third branch on the tree. While she still didn't understand what chakra was, she could tell when she was using it: it led to that churning feeling in her stomach.

It was equally obvious that she was doing something wrong. Her sore butt was clear proof of that.

Her feet needed to learn to stick to the bark, damn it. She scowled down at her shoes and wiggled her toes. If this "chakra" thing was what was allowing her to climb the tree, there obviously wasn't enough of it in her feet.

Even as she thought this, a rushing sensation surged to her feet. Encouraged, she leapt back up and placed one foot against the tree again. The wood splintered and the tree immediately toppled over from the force of her chakra-enhanced tap with a crash that shook the forest as well as the Akatsuki lair.

Ami blinked at the tree for a few moments before turning to the wide-eyed Uchiha. "Damn," she muttered.

* * *

By lunchtime, an exhausted Ami came into the dining room, followed by the ever-silent Uchiha. "Phew! You stink!" Hidan snorted as Ami passed by, her face grimy and sweaty. Her tired brain raced to think of a witty retort, but failed. She went to her seat quietly and slumped down so far that she accidentally kicked Zetsu, seated across from her. She sniffed her shirt, which was plastered to her body. Hidan was right. She did stink.

"How was training?" Pein asked Ami.

"The forest is lacking about six trees," she replied, nodding her thanks to Sasori as he passed her a clean plate. "I knocked them over by accident."

Pein glanced at Itachi, who nodded, saying, "Too much chakra."

"Impressive," Pein replied, his expression unchanging. "Considering you barely have the chakra level of a genin."

Ami gripped her glass of water so tightly, it shattered. "Oops," she muttered, blood dripping from her fingertips as she gathered up the shards of glass and tossed them in the trash. She licked the blood off her cuts as she returned to the table.

"Gross, un!" Deidara snapped and Ami yanked her hand out of her mouth, glaring at him.

Kakuzu sighed and rolled his eyes. "Here." He reached out his hand to her and she blinked. "Let me see it, brat."

Ami held out her hand warily, half expecting him to use the threads in his body to cut off the circulation to her hand. Instead, with blue chakra glowing at his fingertips, Kakuzu passed his hand over hers, healing the cuts.

"Wow!" Ami gasped, sincerely impressed. "Can you show me how to do that?"

"Sure," he replied. "In a hundred years, or whenever you learn to control your chakra." The others snickered as Ami scowled and slumped back in her seat. She winced as she hit her bruised tailbone.

"What are you going to do about her chakra level?" Konan asked Pein.

"Ami," Pein called, just as the girl was about to take a bite out of her sandwich. "Summon your dragon."

"Now?" Ami asked incredulously. Pein raised an eyebrow and she gulped and stood up. Slamming her fingertips against the ground, a tiny dragon appeared. It was no bigger than her palm and it was obviously struggling to fly.

The Akatsuki cracked up as Ami slowly bent down and picked up the tiny dragon. "Um…where's Kirin?" she asked.

The dragon looked indignant. "Oh, like you could possibly summon her. You know, she said something about the last Ryuu Nin being a kid, but wow! I wasn't expecting someone _this_ weak."

"Who're you calling weak, you undersized lizard?" Ami snarled.

The dragon responded by blowing a massive fireball at her, which Ami ducked with a squeak, causing the fireball to strike the curtains instead. As Kisame went to put out the flames, the dragon stuck its tongue out at Ami and disappeared. Hidan collapsed on the table, roaring with laughter.

Pein sighed. "As I thought. It must be a side-effect of the Ryuu no Me. Under certain circumstances, such as when you are feeling some great emotion, your chakra level flares up. Under normal circumstances, it is-"

"Almost fucking nonexistent," Hidan snorted.

The leader's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Basically. Which is why Hidan will help you increase your chakra level."

Hidan immediately stopped laughing. "What the fuck?"

Ami didn't seem all that much happier about this decision, as the look she was giving Hidan was cold enough to freeze Hell.

Slightly concerned, Konan asked, "Pein, are you sure this is the best idea? After all, Kisame has the highest chakra level out of all of us."

"Kisame is also one of the most skilled in taijutsu," Pein replied. "Hidan has the most free time and no other talents." Deidara muffled a sneeze that was most likely a laugh.

"Hey!" Hidan snapped.

"After lunch, you will train Ami," Pein ordered. "Teach her to increase both her physical and spiritual energies so her chakra level will grow accordingly. And no, you cannot use her for a sacrifice."

Ami's face turned pale as she gulped. "Sacrifice?"

* * *

"Drop and give me fifty," Hidan snapped. He was seated on the ground, polishing his three-bladed scythe, barely even looking at her.

"Fifty what?"

"Push-ups, damn it!" Hidan growled. Ami did as she was told. Halfway, through, Hidan put his scythe aside and placed a foot on her back. Ami's arms buckled slightly, but she continued, albeit more slowly than before. However, when Hidan put his full weight on her back, she collapsed. "What's the matter with you, bitch? Up!"

"Can't," she coughed, turning her head slightly so that her face was out of the dirt. "You're squishing me."

Hidan rolled his eyes. "I see what our fucking Leader meant. Even the she-male is stronger than you are."

_She-male?_ After some thought, Ami guessed he was referring to Deidara.

"At least learn to bench your own body weight," he continued.

"You're heavier than I am!" she snapped, sitting up.

"And I can do push-ups with Kisame, Kakuzu, and Zetsu standing on my back," he shot back. "Fifty push-ups. Starting over." He rolled Ami onto her stomach with his toe and put his foot on her back.

After the push-ups came sit-ups. Ami clutched a slab on concrete to her chest as she painfully rolled up inch by inch and slammed into the ground on the way down.

"Keep doing that and the concrete will crush your fucking ribs," Hidan called casually, inspecting a smudge on his scythe before rubbing it out.

Following that, Hidan pulled out a set of weights and strapped them around her ankles. He added a heavily padded jacket. "All of that crap together should weigh about fifty pounds," he said cheerfully.

"That's about half of what _I_ weigh," Ami whined, struggling to stand up straight.

"Fifty laps around this training area," Hidan snapped dismissively.

"What's with you and the number fifty?" she asked.

"Just fucking start!" he yelled. She jogged off, moving at barely faster than a walk.

By the time the sun began to set, Ami finally finished her laps. Her shoulders drooped even when she removed the weighted jacket. Her abs ached like someone had just socked her in the gut and her arms trembled even without any pressure on them.

"One more thing," Hidan said as he turned to leave, spinning the weights around his index finger. Ami's legs gave away just imagining the horrible torture that he'd put her through. "Meditate for an hour before you come in for dinner."

Huh?

"Meditate?" she repeated dumbly.

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Yes, dumbass, meditate. You know, finding your center and saying 'om' and all that shit."

"I know what meditation is," she growled. "But why?"

"Finally. You finally asked a shitty semi-intelligent question," Hidan smirked. Ami started to protest, but decided she was too tired. "Chakra comes from a mix of two energies: physical and spiritual. All those fucking exercises you've been doing so far increase your physical energy. To increase your spiritual energy, you have to do shit like meditation. So meditate."

"Om," Ami said sarcastically. She crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Hidan smirked at her as he went inside.

"How did she do?" Itachi asked as the Jashinist trooped into the dining room.

"Not half-bad for a bitch her size," Hidan admitted. "She's meditating now."

"Dinner will probably be over by the time she's done," Sasori said thoughtfully. "And she hasn't really eaten all day."

"She doesn't seem to like having her meals disturbed, un," Deidara added. Everyone froze and looked down at their plates.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Pein said and, relieved, they all dug in.

* * *

Five hours later, they weren't so sure.

"She still hasn't come inside?" Konan asked as Pein peeked out the window.

"What on earth is she doing out there?" the Akatsuki leader seethed. "It's almost midnight!"

"Aren't there wolves in the woods?" Kisame asked casually as he passed through the room. Konan's eyes widened in horror.

"I'll go," Itachi offered, racing out the door before they could say anything. The moon was high overheard and a loud howl from somewhere in the forest startled the stoic Uchiha as he sprinted towards the training area. He stopped in the middle of the clearing and looked around. There was no sign of her. Was he already too late?

Walking forward, he stepped on something that made a crunching noise, followed by a whimper of pain. He looked down sharply. Lying on the ground, sprawled on her stomach, was Ami, fast asleep. Apparently, he'd stomped on her hand and broken a couple of bones, but the pain hadn't even woken her up. _Must've tried the tree-climbing exercise again and molded too much chakra_, he thought.

Carefully, he picked her up, carrying her back to the hideout. "Unforgiveable," she whispered and he glanced down at her face, thinking she had woken up. But she was still asleep, her face pinched in an expression of irritation. A bad dream?

A tiny smile tugged at the corner's of Itachi's mouth as he looked down at Ami. Something in the expression on her face was eerily familiar. _Sasuke…_

He remembered the hatred in his little brother's eyes when he'd stood up, awakened his Sharingan, and chased after him. He sighed. Who would have thought his playful otouto would change so drastically? He'd meant for Sasuke to kill him and redeem the Uchiha name. He'd never suspected that Sasuke would follow in his precise footsteps and betray Konoha as well.

Itachi recalled Pein saying something about Ami pursuing a dream of vengeance. Had she betrayed her village to gain this power? Would she end up a cold, heartless bastard like his otouto?

"What happened to her hand?" Pein asked, as Itachi gently set Ami on the couch in the living room.

"I stepped on it," Itachi replied.

Pein frowned, searching for signs that Itachi was joking before remembering that Uchihas don't joke. He went off to search for Kakuzu, as Itachi poked Ami in the forehead with his index and middle fingers. "Forgive me, Ami," he murmured. "Again, next time." Where he had failed his brother, he would atone himself by ensuring that Ami did not go down the same path that Sasuke had. Somehow, he would make sure of it.

* * *

"Itai!" The wail echoed throughout the entire building early the next morning.

Hidan smirked as he finished gelling his hair. "Looks like the bitch finally woke up."

There was pounding on the bathroom door as Kakuzu hollered, "Hidan, get out of there before I rip the door off its hinges!"

"Fuck you!" Hidan snapped, checking his reflection one more time before exiting the bathroom. "All yours, asshole."

"Took you long enough," Kakuzu complained. "It smells like hairgel in here! How many times have I told you not to waste money on that junk?"

"It's not junk! It's-" Hidan shut up as Ami trudged out of her room, limping with every step. There were bags under her eyes and her hair resembled a bird's nest more than it did hair. She yawned loudly, pulling her cloak more tightly around her as she slumped against the wall at the end of the line for the bathroom, her face a funny shade of green.

"Morning, bitch," Hidan smirked. "Did you get your beauty sleep? Oh, I guess not." She grumbled something under her breath and made a rude gesture at him, freezing when something in her hand cracked.

"Why…does my hand hurt?" she asked slowly.

Everyone glanced at Itachi, who shrugged.

"It feels like it's been stomped on," she added. Itachi glanced nonchalantly at the bathroom door as Deidara rapped on it impatiently, then jumped back with a squeal as several threads poked through from under the door and waved menacingly.

"Hey she-male, you're as cowardly as a fucking girl," Hidan taunted.

Deidara's face flushed as he shot back, "I'm surprised you even know a big word like 'cowardly', you Neanderthal."

"Really guys?" Kisame complained. "It's too early to listen to your fighting."

"Whatever you say, Fishy," Hidan shot back.

"What was that?"

The sound of their arguing made Ami's head pound and her stomach slosh violently. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her ears. _Shut up, shut up, shut up!_

"Stop." Itachi's commanding voice cut through the din. He walked over to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

Ami blinked up at him. The room was spinning before her eyes and her legs felt as unsteady as they had after her run yesterday. She opened her mouth to reply…and prompted puked all over his feet.

Well, she almost did. Due to years of training and amazing shinobi reflexes, Itachi jumped back at the last moment to avoid the mess.

"Ew," Sasori commented, pulling his robes out of the way as he stepped over it.

"Gomen…" Ami mumbled, her shoulders starting to heave again.

Kakuzu came out of the bathroom at that moment and, remembering what Mikoto used to do when either he or Sasuke were sick, Itachi shoved Deidara out of the way, dragged Ami into the bathroom and held her head over the toilet just as she threw up again.

"What's wrong? Morning sickness?" Hidan sniggered as most of the others suppressed snorts of laughter. Ami mumbled something under her breath that sounded like it should've been an insult, but it was hard to tell with the tears running down her face.

Kisame began ushering everyone away from the room. "Come on guys, give her some space. Leader's out on a mission, so we can go use his private bathroom."

"Awesome, un!" Deidara grinned as the others smiled wickedly. Leader would be pissed when he found out, but what could he do about it?

"You okay?" Itachi asked softly, rubbing Ami's back gently. "Do you feel like throwing up again?"

She shook her head, taking a shaky breath. "Thank you, Itachi-san."

"Ami." The sternness in Itachi's voice forced her to look at him. "What happened?"

"Must've eaten something that disagreed with me," Ami replied.

Itachi shook his head. "You're lying. You barely ate anything yesterday. What's wrong?"

Ami sighed. "It's nothing," she said defensively. "Nothing that concerns you." She pulled her cloak around her shoulders and headed back to her room.

Itachi frowned as Kisame came up. "What was that all about?" the shark-nin asked.

Itachi's eyes were on the curtain that Ami used as a door (Kakuzu had yet to agree to buy her a new one) as he said, "You ever wonder what drove everyone here? Where they came from, why they left, why they're staying?"

Kisame shrugged. "Well, sure. Who doesn't? But it doesn't matter."

"I guess you're right," Itachi nodded. "Everyone has a story that people will judge them on, something that will be practically synonymous with their names. It's rare to find people who will look past all that."

His partner shifted uncomfortably. "Itachi, man, you're scaring me a little. Are you talking about Ami? Or someone else?"

Itachi shook his head. "It's nothing, Kisame." The mask was back on. He headed downstairs, calling over his shoulder, "Come. We should get a bite to eat before we head out."

"Actually," Kisame cut in, "Leader-san wanted to talk to you about that."

* * *

"Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two," Ami gasped under breath as she climbed unsteadily up the tree trunk. "Twenty-thr-AH!" Her foot slipped and she scrabbled wildly, barely managing to grab onto a branch. "Phew," she sighed. Climbing back down to the ground, she studied her path up the tree. She could see the holes in the bark where her feet had punched through the tree from use of too much chakra.

Her stomach sloshed again and she pressed an arm against it, annoyed. She cringed, remembering what had happened that morning. As if the others didn't already have enough to tease her about.

_But one person didn't tease you_, a voice in the back of her head reminded her.

_Itachi-san…_ Ami thought. It was odd how he had asked her all those questions, as if he cared. She made a disparaging noise as she started her ascent again. As if he would care about her. Nobody cared about anyone but themselves.

"Hey, kid!" Kisame's voice startled her, causing her to come crashing back down to the ground.

"Kisame-san," she greeted, nodding her head as she subtly tried to rub her sore behind.

"Still working on it, huh?" he smirked.

"I'm getting better," she replied evenly. If she wasn't feeling so nauseous, she would've come up with an insult that would send him to his room in tears…or she would've kicked him in the balls again.

"Anyhow, Leader-san wants you to do a small mission for him," Kisame explained. "Either he thinks you need the experience, or he's tired of watching you fall on your ass."

"He can see me?" Ami twisted her head around, as if she'd find Pein hidden among the trees somewhere, watching her.

"Leader can see _everything_," Kisame taunted, laughing at the creeped-out look on Ami's face.

"Whatever," she finally sighed, climbing to her feet. "Where is he?"

"In his office," Kisame replied, shoulding his massive sword. "Come on, I'll take you there."

"Thanks," Ami said, relieved that she wouldn't have to put up with anyone misdirecting her to dangerous places. Zetsu's garden had been mild compared to her narrow escape from Hidan's room when she'd accidentally interrupted one of his rituals trying to find the broom closet so she could clean up her puke.

_Wonder how Kakuzu's dealing with the damage to the walls_, she thought.

"Here we are." Kisame stopped so abruptly, she nearly walked into the massive sword he always carried over his shoulder. He rapped on the door and pushed it open, hearing Pein's commanding, "Enter."

"She's here, Leader-san," Kisame called.

"Thank you, Kisame," Pein replied. "You may go."

Ami entered the room, flinching when the door slammed shut behind her. "Y-you asked for me?" She mentally cursed herself for her stutter. _Way to look like the weakling they already think you are._

"I have a mission for you," Pein explained. "Easy as anything, barely even worth a rank." Did he mean to say things like that to make her feel worthless? Or was it he unintentionally implying that he could replace her with an ant and no one would notice? "Your mission is to go into Amegakure and pick up a few things for us." He handed her a list, which Ami glanced over once.

"You want me to go shopping?" she blurted out incredulously. "That's not a mission, it's a chore! Aren't missions supposed to be, I don't know, difficult?"

"Asking Kakuzu to give you the money you need will be difficult," Pein replied. "Itachi will come with you to make sure you do not mess up."

Itachi. Great. Just who she wanted to see after the incident this morning.

The Uchiha stepped out of the shadows, causing Ami to jump violently. "Hello, Ami," he said calmly. "Shall we?"

"Sure," she shrugged, heading out of the room. As Itachi paused in the doorway, he glanced back at Pein, who nodded.

Itachi had been given his real mission earlier: to test Ami's loyalty to Akatsuki. Though she had been forced to join, would she willingly stay?

* * *

"If she keeps poking those stitches, her hand will fall off again, un," Deidara commented, peeking out the window as Itachi and Ami set off for the village.

"Her fault," Kakuzu grumbled.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "They're buying groceries, you idiot. They need money for that."

"Yeah, but she didn't need to ask about a new door for her room," he complained.

"Considering her other option is to build one, um, yeah, she did," Kisame replied.

"You can't talk," Deidara retorted. "You're the one who sliced it to pieces, un."

"At least the bitch knew to block her fucking face," Hidan said as Kisame chased after Deidara, waving Samehada.

"Yeah, because some of us don't have reattachable heads," agreed Kisame, barely missing the blonde as he ducked under a table.

"That's not a word," Sasori grumbled.

"Whatever."

Deidara went back to looking out the window. "Hope they can make it out of there in one piece."

"Aww," Hidan sneered. "Look who fucking cares!"

"I do _not_ care," Deidara snapped. "I just want to destroy Itachi so I can get out of this hell!"

* * *

Itachi sneezed. "Bless you," Ami said and they fell back into a slightly awkward but rather companionable silence.

Turning back to the shelves of canned goods, she pursed her lips, squinting to decipher Pein's handwriting. "C…cr…crap?" she mumbed.

"Cranberry sauce," Itachi replied, glancing down at the list.

Ami frowned and turned the paper upside down. She still didn't see it. Shrugging, she grabbed a can of cranberry sauce off the shelf, just as Itachi slapped a cone-shaped hat on her head. Blinking up through the tassels, she glared at him. "What the _hell_ is this?"

"Disguise," Itachi answered disinterestedly. He was wearing a similar one and had to lift the brim to see through the fringe.

"Why do we need hats to disguise ourselves when we're wearing _Akatsuki uniforms_?" Ami snapped.

"Leader-san's orders." Ami rolled her eyes, turning back to her shopping list and checking off "cranberry sauce". What on earth did an evil organization need with cranberry sauce anyways? Probably better if she didn't know.

The next item on the list was fl…fla…flon… She gave up. "Itachi-san," she began. "Can you read th-?" She froze, looking around her. The stoic shinobi was nowhere to be found. "Itachi-san?"

Leaving the cart in the middle of the aisle, she walked to the end of the aisle and peered down the next one. No sign of a ridiculous hat or a black cloak with red clouds. "Itachi-san!"

Itachi smiled to himself, watching her through the window in the door leading to the employee's lounge. _Here's your chance to escape, Ami_, he thought. _Will you take it?_

"Excuse me, sir." Itachi turned around to find a young employee staring at him. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave-"

Itachi ignored him and turned back to the store window. The employee frowned and cleared his throat. "Sir, this area is for employees only. It is strictly off-limits to customers."

"Hn," Itachi grunted, his eye almost pressed against the window. Was that her over by the strawberries? No, it was someone else. What about the deli? That wasn't her either. The dairy section? Nope. Was red-cloud patterned cloth the new fashion or something? Where was…?

"Sir," the man insisted. "If you don't leave, I'm going to have to call the…" His voice trailed off when he saw the murderous look in Itachi's eyes. The moron had just made him lose Ami. There would be hell to pay.

"Tsukuyomi!"

* * *

The room was beginning to spin before her eyes and her head was starting to pound. "Miss? Miss, are you alright?" a voice asked. It sounded gargly, as if someone was speaking to her underwater.

_"I told you to get the boys out of here! Leave me, damn it! Go!" _

Oh no. Not now. She pressed her fingers to her temples, desperately trying to suppress the dream she'd had last night.

A voice laughed sardonically. _"Guess we had to fail a mission sometime, huh?"_

A rusty metallic smell filled her nostrils and she squeezed her eyes shut. The scent of blood that had previously filled her with an intense desire to kill now made her feel completely nauseous. Her left leg gave away and she sank to the ground, her mind being dragged down into a memory that had just begun to surface…

* * *

_Blood…blood everywhere. The sticky feeling it left on her skin after it struck her face, the salty taste as a few drops accidentally landed in her mouth…worst of all, the smell. Rusty, metallic, and combined with the familiar scents of those people she knew oh so well…_

_"Sensei!" her shrill voice cried out in horror as he heard his grunt of pain, felt his warm blood splash on her body. _

_"Go on, kid," he panted. "Get the boys…get out of here." _

_"I can heal you," she whispered. He was lying on his side, one hand clutching his chest. Gently, she tried prying his fingers away, but he shoved her aside. _

_"I told you to get the boys out of here!" he yelled. "Leave me, damn it! Go!" _

_She raced deeper into the cave, turning again and again along those endless passageways. Her fingertips trailed along the walls, leaving her scent behind so she could find her way back. "Raiden! Satoshi!" she hollered. "Where are you?" _

_A cold laugh ran through the air, causing the hairs on her neck to stand up. "Who's there?" she whispered. _

_"What's this? A little brat?" the voice asked. "Are you looking for your friends? Because it's too late to save them." _

_"Ami-chan," a weak voice groaned. _

_"Satoshi!" She raced over to the boy. "Satoshi, Sensei is-!" She stopped, feeling that same horrible stickiness under her feet as she raced to him. The smell clung to her body, even as she shook her head, trying to force herself to ignore it. _

_"Well, we had to fail a mission eventually," he chuckled humorlessly. "They got Sensei too?" _

_"Satoshi, let me help you," she whispered, her hands scrabbling for his wound. When she touched it, she knew there was nothing she could do. He had been stabbed through the heart and would die in mere moments. _

_"Raiden," she said desperately. "Where's Raiden?" _

_"They got him first," Satoshi coughed. "You have to get out of here, Ami-chan. You can't save us. Save yourself. I-" The words died on his lips. _

_"Satoshi! Nii-san!" she cried, grabbing his wrist, placing her fingers on his neck, feeling for a pulse that wasn't there. Satoshi was dead. "No! NO!" Her hands trembled as she clung to his shirt. "Don't leave me…" _

_One had to be familiar with the concept of death to be a ninja. She understood that when you died, you stopped moving, stopped talking, stopped breathing and you never would again. She understood that your body would be burned or buried in the ground and devoured by worms. She knew that you would never see your loved ones again once they were taken by death. Yes, like a good shinobi, Ami understood death. But never, never had she realized how real it could be. _

_"This wasn't supposed to happen," she whispered. _

_A bark of laughter behind her made her whip her head around in anger. "What were you expecting, kid?" the cold voice roared with laughter. "This is life! Children like you shouldn't be ninjas. You're too young, too weak. You're not ready to face reality. This is the way of the ninja!" _

_"Teme!" Ami growled. All of a sudden, a sudden surge of energy filled her body. She heard a shriek and then- _

* * *

The entire store shook and rumbled as Ami's eyes flashed open, gleaming dangerously. Chakra seemed to glow at her fingertips as she slowly rose to her feet. "Give them back," she snarled at no one in particular. The large crowd that had gathered about her when she collapsed now slowly began to back away.

"Give them back!" she hollered. Reaching one hand out, she swept her arms. Bottles and cans shattered, spraying bits of glass and metal everywhere. Shoppers screamed as they fled the store. Ami didn't seem to hear anything, her eyes fixed on an invisible enemy.

Jabbing a finger at the lights, she sent a stream of lightning through the circuits. She held her palms towards the ground and the store began to shake more and more violently.

As soon as he heard the screams, Itachi had immediately left the quivering employee huddled in a ball on the floor and burst into the store. "Ami!" he yelled. There were only two people he knew of who could cause such wanton destruction and Hidan wasn't there.

The floor cracked as a crater formed in the middle of the shop. Itachi leaped over it, finally spotting the girl standing by the cash registers. Her hair stood out on end as she slowly gestured for something to rise. "Ami!" he yelled again, grabbing her by the shoulders and shook her. She wasn't seeing or hearing anything, trapped in a tiny corner of her brain.

"Give them back," she growled a third time.

"Ami, nothing's been taken," Itachi said. Still no response. "Where are you?" he muttered, waving a hand in front of her face. "Ami, what's wrong?"

The kunoichi seemed to waver a little bit as she lowered her hands slightly. "Don't leave me," she murmured, and he could read the loneliness on her face through her rage.

Itachi's heart clenched. Gently, he brushed her hair out of her face. "Ami, I'm here," he whispered.

"Itachi-san?" Itachi pulled back and was relieved to see Ami's eyes beginning to focus. She blinked a few times. "W-what's going on?"

"You don't remember?" he asked.

"I saw this memory," she said, rubbing her temples. "A flashback or something. And then I think I…" She broke off, staring down at the hole in the floor. "Oh no. We have to get out of here." She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the store just as a column of magma shot through the earth, blowing the roof right off the store. The lights crackled from the overload of electricity and the bulbs exploded. Itachi could only blink as the grocery store collapsed to the ground.

"What happened?" he finally managed to ask.

"You disappeared," she replied. "And I…I guess I freaked out."

_It triggered the flashback and the flashback triggered…this?_ He stared at the ruins and shook his hand, resisting the urge to whistle as Hidan would have done. _At least we can see…she's won't leave yet. _

"Where did you go, anyway?" Ami demanded.

"To get flour." Itachi held up a bag of flour that he had tucked into his cloak before he hid to observe her. The bag had ripped and his black and red cloak was streaked with white.

Ami stared for a minute. "That's…it?"

"Yes," Itachi lied.

The girl burst out laughing until Itachi poked her forehead. "Ow!"

"Forgive me, Ami," Itachi said calmly. "Again, next time."

Ami glared at him as a deep voice growled, "You're under arrest for vandalism and disrupting the peace." Looking up, she found a group of about twenty Ame ninjas surrounding her and Itachi.

A tiny smile tugged at her lips. "Vandalism?" she repeated, with a snicker glancing over at the smoking pile of rubble.

* * *

Pein rubbed his forehead, staring at his partner. _Please let this be a dream_. "Let me get this straight. I sent them out for groceries and they blew up the store."

Konan nodded. "So it would seem. Although witnesses say it wasn't them who blew up the store."

Pein looked up hopefully. "It wasn't?"

Konan shook her head. "It was a volcano that somehow appeared in the middle of the store."

"A volcano," Pein deadpanned. His partner nodded and he sighed. "Looks like Ami is actually learning to use her powers."

"The Ame Military Police Force has them in custody right now," Konan informed him. "Ami sent you a message." She placed a box on his desk.

Cautiously, Pein opened the box. Inside, he found an intact can and a ragged piece of paper that was barely recognizable as a sack. Lying on top of both objects was a note. He picked it up and read: _"Good news, Leader-san! We got the cranberry sauce and flour!"_

Konan counted to three before Pein slammed his head against his desk. Finally, he straightened up and sighed again. "Tell the others to gather in the living room in an hour. We will need to discuss this matter."

He massaged his temples as the kunoichi left the room, then reached into the bottom drawer of his desk. Pulling out a bottle of painkillers, he popped three into his mouth and let himself sink into a hazy stupor.

* * *

I don't know if Amegakure has a police force or not, but I imagine Pein can't see _everything_. Or...maybe he can. o.O

Thanks to those of you who commented! I hope to see more!


	6. Chapter 5: Illusions

Sorry I've taken so long to update everybody! I've been busy with midterms and on top of that, Super Junior M released a new album. (Yes, I love K-pop and especially all things Super Junior. Don't judge me.)

Anyways, last time when we left off, Ami and Itachi were in jail...

* * *

By the time Pein had finished the situation to the remaining Akatsuki members, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

Everyone was laughing too hard.

Well, everyone except Pein, of course, who rubbed his temples in annoyance. His headache was already beginning to come back. _I need a painkiller._

Unfortunately for him, after he'd popped a couple pills to deal with the migraine caused by Ami's little stunt, Konan had found him bouncing around his office in a giggly high. She'd flipped, forced Kakuzu to perform a detox jutsu on their leader (both agreeing never to speak of the horrors they'd witnessed), and taken away all of Pein's painkillers. No amount of whining and begging could get her to change her mind. Not that he _had_ whined or begged of course; that kind of behavior would just be unbecoming to an evil leader like himself.

"Right, it's hilarious," Pein snapped. "Now, we need a plan." Silence. "Well, let's start off with a legal method. Does anyone know a good lawyer?"

Kisame looked disgusted. "Leader-san, if we did, we wouldn't have had to run away from our villages, right?"

"And besides," Kakuzu growled. "Lawyers are too expensive." Pein scowled at that.

"Plus we're fucking Akatsuki!" Hidan snapped. "We don't _do_ shitty legal methods."

"Probably better for us if Ami's in prison, anyways," Sasori commented. "At least she won't blow up the hideout."

"What kind of talk is that?" Konan snapped fiercely, causing the usually emotionless puppet to flinch ever so slightly. "Ever since she got here, you've all been nothing but nasty to her! You won't let her have a door, you won't let her have blankets, you won't even let her eat! And now, you're going to let her rot in jail? The poor girl's probably crying her eyes out right now!"

* * *

The "poor girl" bounced up and down on her cot enthusiastically. "Awesome! A bed! I actually get a bed!"

The inmate in the cell across the hall regarded her with a mix of amusement and confusion. "What did you get in for, kid?"

"Vandalizing a grocery store," Ami replied, sprawling on her cot and looking up at her fellow prisoner.

The woman across from her could easily pass for a man, with muscles bulging out of her orange jumpsuit and a short, boyish haircut. Her voice, however, was rather shrill, which convinced Ami that yes, prisons do separate inmates by gender.

The woman chuckled. "You don't look like the type who would vandalize something."

"I know!" Ami nodded emphatically. "Especially since I didn't!"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "You didn't?"

"No! I didn't vandalize the store, I blew it up!" Ami whined.

The woman swallowed a laugh. "You a ninja or something?"

"Something like that," Ami replied. "My name is Ami."

"I'm Makoto," the woman told her. "Hey, if you're a ninja, can you bust us out of here?"

Ami frowned. "I don't know…I don't think my friends would be very happy with if I did that."

Makoto rolled her eyes. "You're already in jail, kid. How much more trouble could you get into?"

The girl thought about that for a moment, before nodding. "I suppose you have a point." Makoto grinned eagerly. "Although I'm not very strong."

"But you blew up a grocery store?" Makoto asked.

"Well, I wasn't exactly in control when I did that," Ami replied. "Aren't there other ninjas here?"

Makoto rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? The leader of our village mowed down anyone who stood against him! Any shinobi left are completely loyal to him."

Ami frowned, wondering if Makoto-san was talking about Pein. While he did try to have a firm grasp over the Akatsuki, he definitely wasn't a tyrant. Either way, that didn't change the fact that she was still in prison. _Might as well train if I'm here_, she though, eyeing the smooth walls. Perhaps she could try practicing the tree-climbing exercise on the walls?

She stood up and walked over to the wall, carefully placing one foot against it. Slowly, she began walking up the wall as Makoto watched in surprise.

"Hey!" a sharp voice startled her, causing a surge of chakra to go to her feet. With the next step, she stamped a hole through the wall, startling herself, which then caused her to fall off the wall onto the hard, concrete floor.

"Ow," she whined, glaring up at the guard standing in her doorway. "You made me lose focus, jerk!"

The guard looked taken aback at being told off by one of his prisoners. Quickly, he recovered, rearranging his features into a scowl and sharply smacked his stick against the bars on her door. "Quiet! What are you doing?" Ami looked up at him and shrugged innocently. He glared at her. "Don't you know how to talk?" Still no answer. "Say something, damn it!"

"Well, you told me to be quiet," Ami replied simply. "And I was just walking around."

"On the walls?" The guard frowned at her.

"Do you see a lot of room on the floor?" Ami shot back.

The guard glared at her, grinding his teeth together. Finally, he spat out, "Well, don't. No shinobi training while in prison."

"Yes sir." Ami mock saluted. Muttering something about upping the security for her, the guard stomped off, only to trip on a loose stone in the hallway.

Makoto coughed, unable to suppress her snicker. "You've got quite a mouth kid. That'll get you into trouble."

"She's right, Ami. I would advise you not to irritate the guards," a familiar voice said.

"Itachi-san?" Ami looked around, but there was no sight of the raven-haired shinobi. "Where are you?"

"Here." The voice seemed to be coming from the new hole she had stomped in the wall of her cell and sure enough, a few moments later, a red eye peeked in.

"AAAAH!"

"Care to explain how this happened?" he asked.

"Not my fault!" Ami protested instantly. "Too much chakra!"

Itachi silently wondered why she was even walking on the walls in the first place, but decided not to ask.

"Besides, it's your fault that we ended up in here anyways," Ami huffed.

One of Itachi's perfectly smooth eyebrows quirked upwards. "My fault?" he repeated.

"Yeah," she snapped. "If you hadn't ditched me in the store, I wouldn't have freaked out and blown the place up. Now we're stuck here forever!"

Makoto nodded her agreement. "The legal system in Ame takes forever to do anything." She shrugged. "I've been stuck in here for six months now, just waiting for my chance at a trial. Of course the food isn't too bad, and they do let you out every once in a while for exercise…"

Ami's eyes lit up. "They feed you?"

The other woman nodded. "You just missed lunch, but dinner comes around in another couple hours."

"Six months?" Itachi repeated. He did _not_ want to be stuck in this jail for six months. Of course, he could easily melt the bars with a fireball jutsu, but…one perfect eyebrow arched slightly as he came up with a plan.

Makoto frowned. "Who's the guy behind you, Ami-chan?"

"Just some person," Ami replied vaguely.

Itachi rolled his eye. "Ami, listen to me." She pouted and crossed her arms, turning away from him. He continued talking anyways. "There are three ways for us to get out of here."

"Oh, _now_ you think about getting out," she grumbled.

Ignoring her, the Uchiha continued. "We can wait for our trial. I'll probably walk out free since I was not responsible, but you will have to serve a sentence."

"What?" Ami whirled around to stare at him indignantly. "But you said 'us'! What about me?"

Itachi held up a second finger. "We can also hope for Leader-san to use his influence and help us out. The chances of that are slim to none because he is rather…upset with you."

"What's the third option then?" Ami asked.

"You persuade the guards to let us out."

"Persuade?" Ami repeated, blinking. Then she cringed. "Ew! Pervert!" she yelled, attempting to punch him through the hole. He pulled back quickly and she ended up getting her fist caught. As she struggled to free her hand, Itachi rolled his eyes once again.

"Not like that," Itachi said, a hint of impatience in his voice, which he quickly quashed. "Let me explain." Ami finally managed to pull her hand back and nodded for him to begin.

"There are three basic types of jutsus that shinobi must learn," he began, holding up his fingers. "Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. You're going to get us out with a little genjutsu."

* * *

Pein groaned and banged a fist down on the table. "Enough!" he hollered, silencing all the bickering at the table. All eyes turned to look at him.

Deidara raised his hand. "Is it dinnertime yet?" he asked. "It's almost nine, un."

"NO!" Pein screamed.

Everyone flinched. "Okay, just asking, un," Deidara muttered. "Geez."

"Maybe it's that time of month?" Hidan whispered to Kisame who guffawed loudly, only for both of them to find Konan slamming their faces into the table. She didn't take kindly to "time of month" jokes.

"Sowwee Konan," they mumbled through bloody noses.

"Look, we've been discussing what to do about Ami and Itachi for eight hours," Pein snapped as Kisame tilted his head back, trying to lick the blood dripping out of his nose. He failed and ended up tumbling to the ground. "And all that we've established is that they are currently in prison and we should do something about it. And-"

A crash echoed through the hallway, causing them all to jump to their feet. "What was that, un?" Deidara whispered.

"Scared, Deidara-chan?" smirked Hidan.

Deidara flushed. "No, un! God, a man can't even ask a question around here without being accused of being scared!"

"Hey, watch your fucking mouth!" Hidan hollered. "There is no God, only Jashin!"

"Enough!" Pein snapped. "Hidan, go figure out what's going on."

Grumbling, Hidan stomped out of the room and everyone else took their seats again. A few minutes later, he came back. "Hey, Leader, your problem's been solved. Can you fucking dismiss the meeting now?"

Pein frowned, confused. "My problem's been solved?"

Itachi came into the room with Ami limply trailing after him. Both were covered from head to toe with soot and Ami's cloak was ripped in at least six places. "What happened to you?" Sasori asked.

Itachi's lips almost quirked into a smile, nearly causing Kisame to have a heart attack on _top_ of his bloody nose, because as everyone knows, every time Itachi smiles, a little girl cries. "Well, it was like this…"

* * *

A loud clatter echoed through the prison, causing a guard to come running in a panic. The noise was echoed several times, as if someone were trying to smash through the bars in front of each cell.

Upon arrival, he found a teenage girl with a huge scowl on her face, kicking at the bars. "Finally!" she grumbled as he came into her sight. "Let me out of this thing, damn it! I need to pee!"

The guard sighed in relief and annoyance as he pulled out a pair of chakra-suppressing handcuffs. "Be quick about it." He pulled out his ring of keys and unlocked her door.

Ami immediately lashed out with a sidekick aimed his fingers as he began to push aside the bars. With a yelp, the guard stumbled backwards, only to roll aside as she whipped forward with a reverse punch. Her fist sunk into the wall, leaving a dent.

"Doton: Doryu Taiga!" Ami glanced down to see the ground around her feet turning into a river of mud and she sprang upwards, her feet lightly sticking to the ceiling.

"So you _are_ a shinobi," she muttered.

He didn't answer, instead pulling up a couple shuriken and aiming them at her. Ami jumped to the ground, landing a few feet away, and formed a seal with her hands.

She charged forward, her body growing larger and more monstrous as she did so. Horns sprouted from her head, spikes grew from her shoulders and elbows, and her fingernails turned into long, sharp blades. The guard blocked her open palm strike, but bit back a cry of pain as she raked her nails down his arm. Then, without hesitating, she whirled around and elbowed him in the stomach, plunging the spike deep within his stomach.

In the real world, Makoto stared in shock as the guard curled up on the floor, writhing in pain. "What did you do?" she gasped.

"It's an illusion," Ami replied, swiftly snatching the keys from the guard's belt. As she began unlocking the other cells, the guard screamed loudly.

"Over here!" she heard a voice yell and several footsteps came thundering in their direction.

Handing the keys to Makoto, she instructed the older woman to release all the other prisoners while she took care of the guards. She stood calmly, hands behind her back, as ten guards came into view, led by the chief of the Amegakure Military Police Force.

"You," he growled. Ami glanced over her shoulder, as if not realizing who he was talking to. He was already irritated, and she was still calm. The more angry he got, the more likely it would be for him to make a mistake. Even if that chance was smaller than whatever Hidan had for a brain, she'd take it.

"Don't let them escape! Get them!" the chief spat.

Quickly, Ami cast another genjutsu upon the group. As they rushed towards the freed prisoners, the ground beneath them changed into quicksand. The more they struggled to free themselves, the higher the sand rose, swallowing them into its dark recesses and muffling their cries.

The chief frowned at his downed guards and opened his mouth to call for back-up. Before he could, the bars of one of the opened cells melted right off the door. As he blinked in surprise, he felt something heavy around his foot and looked down to see the bars winding themselves around his legs, cuffing them together.

He stared up at the young girl, now smirking at him. He clasped his hands, brought his index fingers together, and yelled, "Kai!"

Instantly, the metal cuffs disappeared and the chief smirked at Ami's stunned expression. She whipped her head around and took a few steps back, glaring at the red eye calmly watching the whole development. "You never told me that people could escape from genjutsu!"

Itachi looked genuinely puzzled as he replied, "I thought it was obvious."

Suddenly, Itachi's face distorted into that of a weasel and Ami squinted at him, frowning. "Wow, you really live up to your name, huh?"

Before he could make a retort, the ceiling began to come down on her slowly, plaster spikes forming and elongating as they neared her. Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at the chief of the guard, whose face was perfectly calm. Mimicking the seal he had made earlier, she cried, "Kai!"

The ceiling went back to normal and Ami rolled her neck. "Huh, genjutsu seems pretty useless if you can figure it out this easily."

Itachi's eye twitched.

"I'm not here to play games, girl!" the shinobi growled.

"Good," Ami replied. "Because neither am I."

The man slipped a ninjato out of his belt and held it in his hand, testing its weight. Ami, who had very little experience with hand-held weapons, had no desire to get close enough to learn the fine art of kenjutsu by trial-and-error.

Focusing her chakra, she prepared her next illusion.

Meanwhile, Makoto had finally reached the male half of the prison and was currently struggling to unlock the doors. In response to their puzzled inquiries, she replied, "Little girl causing a fuss, prison break, just get the hell out." To which they happily complied.

"Arigato." Itachi bowed his head respectfully when she finally reached him. He was the last prisoner to be released. "You should escape now too."

Makoto frowned. "What about you? Aren't you a shinobi too? Why aren't you helping the kid?"

"I have faith that she can handle it," Itachi replied. "However, I will remain behind as backup."

The woman nodded and held out her hand. "Good luck, mate," she said.

"You as well," Itachi replied, shaking her hand firmly, before turning to where Ami was still engaged in a duel with the head guard.

To anyone else, the sight would have been funny. The two opponents would stare at each other for some period of time, before one of them broke eye contact, eyes clouded, and started screaming about snakes or mutant frogs or giant chickens wielding shuriken. Then comprehension would cross their face and they would cry, "Kai!", effectively freeing themselves of the illusion. The process would repeat itself with the other opponent, going back and forth until Itachi's chakra pathway system felt disoriented just _watching_ the fight.

Yes, to anyone else, the genjutsu battle would have been funny.

To Itachi, it was an insult to the art that his family was masters of.

He supposed they could be forgiven, however, as he watched Ami jump up and down, yelping something about a three-eyed squid with ten tentacles.

"Kai!"

"Ami, what is taking so long?" he called in one of the brief moments where she wasn't trapped in or casting an illusion.

"Genjutsu pong," she snapped, panting from the strain on her chakra reserves. While she was alright with casting genjutsu, she struggled with genjutsu release, requiring an extra burst of chakra to do so. _It's always the easy things that I have trouble with_, she grumbled to herself.

"When will you be finished?" Itachi inquired in an infuriatingly calm voice.

The girl frowned. "I don't know," she replied. "Oh my god, your skin is neon pink! Wait. Kai!"

Itachi took a moment to glance at the other guards (after discreetly checking his skin to make sure it wasn't _actually_ pink), all of whom were lying unconscious on the ground. Some of the escaped prisoners had taken the opportunity, seeing the guards knocked out by Ami's genjutsu, to make sure they stayed out. Itachi inspected some of the injuries approvingly. _For civilians, they do know how to give a good bruise._

It was then that he realized the shouts of "Kai!" were moving farther away from him and he briskly walked (because Uchihas never hurried) in the direction of the shouts. Poking his head through the door, it seemed that they were inside a weapons storage closet. Ami was currently trapped in one of the guard's illusions, slapping at her wrists as she muttered something about rabid leeches with feet.

As she raised her hands to release herself from the genjutsu, Itachi noticed a familiar stack of small slips of paper on a shelf next to her. Slips of paper with ink scribbles on them. Ink scribbles that suspiciously looked like kanji.

Kanji for "baku", or "explode."

And Ami, in her weariness, accidentally formed the wrong seal with her hands.

Itachi's eyes widened in panic. "Ami, wait!"

Her chakra spiked. "Kai!"

The world turned white.

* * *

Itachi woke up first, unpleasantly surprised to find himself with a pulsing headache, gritty eyes, and his body buried by twice his weight in plaster. _What happened?_ he groaned, blinking up at the sky. _Last thing I remember, was the genjutsu fight and-_

He froze, remembering clearly now. The youngest Akatsuki member had been standing next to a pile of exploding tags when the guard had cast another genjutsu on her. To escape it, she'd formed her hands into the proper seal, only for her hands to slip into the snake seal, resulting in the detonation of the entire stack of exploding tags.

A soft whine told him that Ami was waking up and he stood up easily, crawling out of the rubble and carefully picked his way over to the spot where the sound had come from. Plunging his arm into the pile of ceiling plaster, he felt a piece of cloth and yanked up. Upon finding the unconscious chief, he stuffed the man back under the debris.

"Itai…" came Ami's voice again and he waded a bit closer to what was left of the door to the storage room. Reaching down again, he felt the familiar smoothness of their uniform cloaks and pulled. Sure enough, it was Ami, and she was blinking her eyes open slowly.

"Itachi…san?" she mumbled. "What happened? Did I-" She blinked in the bright sunlight and her face slowly paled in horror. "D-did I blow up the jail?"

Itachi surveyed the destruction that setting off a whole shelf full of exploding tags had caused. "Yes."

She melted into a little puddle of depression and curled up on the pile of rubble, rocking back and forth until Itachi realized that she really had no intention of moving. With a small "hn" of annoyance, he began dragging her far away from the remains of the jail by the collar of her Akatsuki cloak, heading back to the base. He'd dragged her along for about half a mile before she finally yanked herself out of his grasp and climbed to her feet, trotting alongside him silently. It wasn't until the base finally came in sight that Ami finally spoke:

"Aren't you going to yell at me?"

Itachi's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Why would I yell at you?"

Ami bit her lip. "Well, for blowing up the jail." She twiddled her thumbs, staring at the ground as she added, "Ever since I've arrived here, I've done nothing but cause trouble for everyone, especially you and Leader-san. I just…"

Itachi put a gentle hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him in surprise. He smiled and she cringed in fear, but attempted a smile of her own. It was refreshing to see the young kunoichi humbled by her own actions. Only when she accepted that there was much she needed to learn could she truly grow stronger.

"Ami," he said as gently as possible in a voice that reminded her of a serial killer. "You are young and immature and have had no formal training that you remember."

Like that made her feel any better. "Uh…thanks?"

"You will improve with time and practice," Itachi added.

Ami's smile widened. "Thanks, Itachi-san." He poked her in the forehead. "Itai!"

* * *

Pein didn't know whether to smile or scream as Itachi finished telling the story. He glanced at Ami, leaning against the wall with an exhausted but slightly satisfied look on her face. Considering the girl could barely control her chakra well enough to climb up a tree, it was incredible that she'd engaged in a genjutsu battle, although they'd need to work on making her illusions a bit more convincing and…less stupid. He rolled his eyes. _Flying unicorns with flaming hooves? Who did she think she was kidding?_ Although he had to admit he was impressed that she'd mastered the basics of genjutsu in just a day. Perhaps she was more promising than he'd thought.

Of course, blowing up the jail in Ame meant a hell of a lot of paperwork for him. Honestly, sometimes it sucked being the leader of a shinobi village.

"Itachi, you may go to your room and rest," he said. "You've had a long day."

"Hey, what about us?" Sasori complained. Pein just ignored the scowling puppet.

"Thank you, Leader-san," Itachi replied, bowing and turning to leave the room. Ami went to follow him, heading for her own room, when-

"As for you," Pein continued. She gulped, freezing in her tracks and turning around slowly. "Go outside and climb trees until you can reach the top."

Ami just sighed, knowing that he was not in the mood for an argument. "Hai, Leader-san." Shoulders slumped, she trudged out the door.

Konan frowned. "Her chakra reserves are exhausted, Pein, and-"

"I know," Pein replied. "I am well aware of that."

"Then why-?"

"Genjutsu requires extremely precise chakra control. If the genjutsu training Itachi gave her paid off at all, she should have no trouble, even in this condition," Pein explained. He smiled grimly as he added, "If it didn't, Zetsu can clean up her corpse tomorrow."

* * *

"What a jerk," Ami muttered under her breath. "I knew he hated me. He does nothing but give me orders and insult me. Who does he think he is?" She sighed, pushing her sweaty and sooty bangs out of her face.

Zetsu watched her from several feet away, in his disguise mode. Ami glanced in his direction and he froze, trying to act like a normal plant. "Huh, I didn't know there were Venus flytraps in Ame."

_Oh crap_, thought white Zetsu as he prepared to get out of there since Ami would probably most likely definitely beat him up if she caught him spying on her for any reason. Not that she _could_ beat him up of course…

_**Let's eat her**_, black Zetsu suggested.

_Shush_.

"Oh, whatever," the girl sighed, too tired to care. She stopped in front of a tree that she deemed suitably tall. Gathering her chakra at her feet, Ami began her ascent.

It took her a while to realize that she wasn't having any trouble at all. In fact, it was easy! Too easy! Ridiculously easy! "What the hell?" she muttered, stopped and staring down at her feet. She turned around carefully and looked down.

She'd climbed up a little over two-thirds of the tree and the bark didn't even have her footprints on it! She squealed and glanced up. She was so close to the top! She could actually make it!

Ami raced up the tree trunk as fast as she could, not even bothering to think about her feet. It was just happening naturally! Three feet away…two feet away…one… Her hand reached up and grasped onto the very tip of the tree, wrapping her fingers around it and clinging to it as if her life depended on it. Her knees gave way and she sank down on one of the branches, still holding on tightly to the trunk.

"I DID IT!" she bellowed, the yell echoing through the forest and scaring wildlife for miles around.

Inside the Hokage Residence, Tsunade looked up and glanced out her window, frowning. "I thought I heard a voice…" She shrugged and glanced at the bottle of sake in her hand. "Maybe I should stop for the day." Immediately, she brought the bottle up to her lips and took another swig.

Inside the Akatsuki base, Pein looked up and let a rare smile cross his face. Then he held out his hand to Kakuzu. "Told you she could get it in three days. Pay up."

"Damn," the masked-nin muttered, reaching into his money bag.

* * *

Wow, this chapter was shorter than the ones I usually write and it sucked too. I promise there will be more action in the next one!

Translation thing: Doton: Doryu Taiga- Earth Release: Earth Flow River

Read and review, please!


	7. Chapter 6: Enter the Snake

Hey everyone! It's been a while. Somewhere in between midterms, a housing crisis, and that twenty page short story I had to write, this got pushed to the back of my mind. *bows* Sorry!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Ami bounced off the tree trunk and collapsed on the ground. A trickle of blood made its way out of her mouth, but she wiped it away and rose to her feet once more. "Stop closing your eyes!" Kisame snapped. "If you can't see how I'm attacking, how are you supposed to defend?"

"Sorry," she mumbled. "Can we try that again?"

Honestly, she didn't want to do any more taijutsu. Pein had promised that he would start teaching her ninjutsu soon, but all of their lessons had ended quickly, due to his impatience at her inability to remember sequences of hand seals or to control the amounts of chakra needed for each technique. He'd declared that her ninjutsu training would have to be postponed while they figured out a way to overcome her incompetence. In the mean time, she'd practice taijutsu with Kisame, do target practice with Itachi, and build her chakra levels with Hidan.

Kisame grumbled something about weak kids who shouldn't be shinobi, then struck out at her again. Ami's eyes immediately flew shut and she raised her arms to block the attack. Growling in frustration, Kisame attempted a strike to her throat, a move that would have killed her. Just before the attack landed, however, Ami's hand whipped up and out, knocking his fist away and countered with a punch to his solar plexus that left him wheezing. Her eyes widened in surprise as she realized what she had done.

Puzzled, Kisame signaled for them to stop. "How did you see that coming?" he asked, once his voice returned to normal.

Ami blinked down at her hand in surprise. "I don't know," she said honestly. "I just felt it, I guess, and my body moved accordingly."

Kisame thought about that as he breathed deeply, attempting to get his breathing back to normal. "We're going to try something new," he said. "Blindfold yourself and track my movements."

Ami pulled her forehead protector down over her eyes. "Am I supposed to follow you?"

"Yeah. I'll try to go easy on you." Chuckling at her annoyed expression he leapt up into the branch of a tree and took off through the forest. Without hesitation, Ami followed.

Kisame lead her on a merry chase through the woods, finally ducking under a particularly low branch and jumping down to the ground. Ami easily avoided it and landed beside him. As one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame was a master of silent killing. Still, he had to admit that he was impressed that she could track him, even if he had been purposefully making more noise than usual.

"Did you always have those eyes?" he asked when they paused for a break.

Ami removed her forehead protector and shrugged, wincing a bit from the light. "As far as I know," she replied.

Interesting. Usually dojutsu users were absolutely useless without their special eyes. He knew from years of being partners with Itachi that while Itachi was naturally gifted as a shinobi, it was his Sharingan that allowed him to effortlessly overcome any opponent.

"Kisame-san?" Ami interrupted his thoughts.

"We're done for today, kid," Kisame replied. "You can go rest or something."

"Rest," she grumbled. "Right. Target practice with Itachi is definitely restful." Every time she missed a target, he'd throw weapons at her until she nailed the next one. While running for her life.

Kisame chuckled as she trudged off. _She really needs to learn to shunshin_. With that thought, he vanished in a swirl of mist and reappeared outside Pein's office. He knocked once. "Come in," Pein called.

Opening the door, he found the Akatsuki leader almost buried in a pile of paperwork. This was not unusual. Pein began directing all his complaints at the shark-nin the moment Kisame walked in, which was also not unusual. "Stupid kid just _had_ to blow up the jail as well," he grumbled. "Just the grocery store would have been fine. But the jail? Did you know that the pardon form for the jail is fifty pages? And the request form for a pardon was seventy-two? It took two months for that request to go through! Something about 'posing as a danger to our community'." He huffed in annoyance and threw the pardon on the desk.

Kisame took the half-completed form and skimmed it. "Well, it says you can skip page forty-six."

"Keep reading," Pein muttered.

Kisame finished the sentence. "'Unless the one being pardoned is under fifteen, is female, and has a strange bloodline limit. Oh.'"

Pein grumbled. "Why couldn't she be just one year older? Just one!" He sighed and stacked a pile of papers into a slightly neater file. "Well, what do you want? If this is about the little brat, it can wait."

"In that case, it can wait," Kisame said nervously, turning around and heading out of the room.

"Oh for crying out-" Pein sighed again, feeling a migraine coming on. Curse Konan for locking his painkillers away. "Let's just get this over with. What did she do now?"

"Nothing," Kisame said. "But did you know that she used to be blind?"

* * *

Ami slumped down on the sofa with a sigh and raised her glass of water to her lips. "HEY KID!" Deidara hollered in her ear. She shrieked and jumped, splashing the water all over her face.

The blonde snickered as she glared up at him, wiping water out of her eyes. "You have five seconds to get away from here, Deidara-san," she growled angrily.

He wagged a finger at her, the tongue on his palm poking out. "Ah ah ah. Leader-san wants to see you and you can't keep him waiting."

She scowled and slowly climbed to her feet, her body still trembling with pain. "You got lucky this time," she muttered, staggering off towards Pein's office.

"Bet you couldn't catch me anyways!" he called after her. She whipped around to glare at him and then rubbed her sore neck.

"Ow…"

Pein was tapping his fingers impatiently on his desk when she finally knocked on the door. "Enter!" he called in annoyance. "What took you so long?"

She tottered forward and collapsed into the chair in front of his desk. "Taijutsu and training with Hidan happened."

He sighed. "Never mind that. I think I've finally found a way to teach you ninjutsu." Ami's eyes lit up. "Blindfold yourself."

"Have you been sneaking painkillers again?" she asked.

"Just do it!" he snapped. The last thing he needed was for Konan to hear any rumors about him taking more painkillers. For the second time that day, Ami pulled her forehead protector down over her eyes. "Now, take your shoes off."

"My shoes?"

"Did you used to be deaf too?" he asked. "Take your shoes off!"

She did, although she left her shoes on his desk just to annoy him. "Stand up," he ordered and she sighed, climbing to her feet. "I'm going to channel my chakra to you, through the floor. I want you to tell me which way it's spinning."

"Spinning?" she repeated.

"And stop echoing everything I say." Clasping his hands together, he began to mold chakra, channeling it past his feet. It was an easy, albeit unusual task for him, and he watched the light blue lines of chakra form in circles under Ami's feet, spinning in a counterclockwise direction.

Ami's eyes widened behind the blindfold as she felt something moving beneath her feet. "Left," she said instantly.

"Correct." Pein began spinning the chakra in the opposite direction.

"Right."

"Correct. Now we will move onto something more difficult. This is the Henge no Jutsu." His hands slowly formed the seals necessary for the Henge no Jutsu, dog, boar and tiger. Each hand seal manipulated the different amount of chakra needed for the technique. If Ami could sense the changes, then she could master the technique. In theory.

To his surprise and relief, Ami's hands mimicked the seals he had formed moments before. "Henge!" she cried. There was a puff of smoke and a slightly smaller version of Pein stared back at him. It was also missing a few piercings, but otherwise, it was a great improvement over her previous attempts.

Ami spoke up hesitantly. "Did it work?" she asked in Pein's deep voice. She gasped. "Whoa!"

Pein almost smiled. Almost. "Congratulations. You have nearly mastered a ninjutsu technique that every academy student learns before they become a genin."

Instead of feeling insulted, however, Ami grinned widely. "Let's do that again!"

* * *

"Just one more time," she pleaded. It was drawing close to midnight and although she wouldn't admit it, she was getting tired. Still, she wanted to get her transformation jutsu perfect before she called it quits for the night.

Pein shook his head firmly. "No. You've used too much chakra and if you keep it up, you'll kill yourself."

"But-"

"No."

"What if-"

"No."

"But I'm-"

"GO TO BED."

Ami gulped and nodded quickly. "Okay!" She raced out of the office, heading towards her room, but stopped. Well, what Leader-san didn't know wouldn't kill him.

She headed outside into the training grounds to practice the techniques he'd taught her on her own. Slipping off her shoes, she closed her eyes and began to mold chakra. "Dog… boar… tiger…" she murmured, forming the appropriate hand seals. "Henge!" She opened her eyes again.

An exact duplicate of Pein stood in her place. Running a hand over her face, she noted that she finally had all the piercings where they belonged. His hair was spiked exactly right and she'd even managed to make her eyes look like the Rinnegan.

"Very impressive."

She jumped at the unfamiliar voice, instantly changing back to herself. "Who's there?" she called.

A pair of yellow, snake-like eyes gleamed in the darkness as a lanky figure with long black hair stepped out from the shadows. "I've been watching you, Ryuu Ami."

Several questions ran through Ami's mind: "How do you know my name?" "Why have you been watching me?" But the first one she ended up asking was, "Are you male or female?"

The snake-like eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Why does everyone keep asking that?" he muttered under his breath.

"Who are you?" she snapped.

The shinobi merely smiled. "Of course. How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Orochimaru."

"Okay." Ami blinked, the name not meaning anything to her. "What are you doing here?"

Orochimaru merely smirked and leaned against a tree. "Just watching a fellow shinobi practice some basic techniques."

Ami twitched as she snapped, "Well, could you not?" Not to mention the definite creepy vibe she was getting from this guy. Well, she assumed he was male, seeing as "-maru" was commonly added on the end of boys' names.

"What if I help you, since your sensei won't?" he asked.

Ami looked at him suspiciously. "How long have you been watching me for?"

Orochimaru just smiled. "Try your henge again."

Still wary, Ami agreed and transformed herself into Pein. "Well?"

"As I thought," he replied. "Your jutsu itself is good, but you are wasting much too much chakra on such a simple technique. If you waste chakra on a basic jutsu like this, how will you ever have the stamina to last in a fight?" The kunoichi just stared at him. "What?"

"You didn't insult me like Leader-san does," she whispered. "Whoa."

Orochimaru smiled, although he was mentally rolling his eyes. "Shall we try again? Try to use the smallest amount of chakra possible."

Ami did as she was told, although this time, the transformation came out incomplete. "It didn't work."

The shinobi nodded, pretending to be thinking. "It looks like you need lots of practice. It may take weeks for you to master this. Or…"

"Or what?" Ami asked.

Orochimaru shook his head. "No, no, I shouldn't tell you. Your Leader wouldn't want me to tell you that so early." He turned away, sneaking a peek over his shoulder. Sure enough, Ami's eyes were wide and eager. She was caught.

"Tell me what?" she asked. "What doesn't he want me to know?"

Even better. She sounded rather betrayed. "Well…" he hesitated.

"Tell me!" she cried. "Tell me…please?"

Orochimaru smiled to himself and turned around to face her. "It's about your eyes, Ami-chan." Ami shuddered at the way he said her name, but let him continue. "Did you know that they're special?"

"Well…yeah," she replied. "I see things. Things that other people don't seem to notice. But what-"

"It's not that they don't notice them," he told her. "It's that they can't see them because you're special." He walked forward and stroked her cheek. She cringed at the feel of his cold skin. It was rough, like sandpaper. The creep had really dry skin.

"Why am I special?" she asked, backing up until she was out of his reach.

"Have you heard of the term kekkai genkai?" he asked. She nodded, recalling Pein mentioning it once, although he had never fully explained what that meant. "It is a bloodline limit, or a genetic ability that can only be inherited. Yours is now one of the rarest in the world."

"Really?" Ami grinned widely. "But then why won't Leader-san talk about it?"

"He's afraid of you, Ami-chan," he replied. "He's afraid of the power that you have, because it has the potential to be stronger than his. With the right training, of course."

"And you know how to use it?" she asked.

Orochimaru shrugged. "Well, I don't presume to know everything, but-"

"Teach me!" she cried. "Please?"

Orochimaru widened his eyes in mock surprise. "Why, Ami-chan, I wouldn't dream of it! Isn't your Leader-san the one who's supposed to be training you?"

"But, if he's scared of my power then he won't train me properly, and I really want to be stronger…" She was mumbling now, asking herself what to do. Orochimaru could only hear snippets of her conversation: "But this guy is kind of creepy…" He tried not to get offended.

Finally, she nodded, as if convinced and turned to him. "Train me. Please."

Orochimaru smiled like the cat that had swallowed the canary.

* * *

Bleary-eyed, Ami stumbled down to the breakfast table and promptly collapsed in Kakuzu's usual seat, an offense that she could easily be killed for. Luckily, Kakuzu was doing his pre-breakfast money count, which meant he wouldn't be down for an hour.

Even so, the rest of the Akatsuki was shocked. "Ami, what the fuck are you doing?" snapped Hidan.

"Morning, Hidan-san," she mumbled, smiling and waving instead of insulting and throwing something at him as she usually did. The Jashinist was shocked into silence.

Itachi leaned over and felt her forehead before checking his own. "Her temperature is normal."

"Maybe she has rabies?" Deidara suggested.

She giggled. "You're funny Deidre."

The vein on the blonde's temple ticked. "It's Deidara."

"That's what I said," she mumbled, crossing her arms and resting her head on them. "Night, everybody."

Just then, Pein marched into the room, annoyed. "I told Ami to meet me in my office for our next training session half an hour ago. Where is she?"

Everyone pointed at Kakuzu's seat, where Ami was now fast asleep, mouth hanging open and practically drooling on the table. Pein raised an eyebrow. "And what is she doing there?"

"I think she's drunk," Kisame said.

"Ami," snapped Pein, shaking the kunoichi's shoulder. "Get up. Now."

"Five more minutes, mom," she whined.

The expression on Pein's face was priceless, but one stony-faced glare immediately shut up the other shinobi. "I will count to five," he warned her, folding his arms and mentally counting.

Sure enough, when he got to five, Ami jumped a foot in the air and landed back on her seat, startled. "Oh, Leader-san. Ohayo!"

Pein just glared at her. "Training. Now."

"Am I late?" she asked, scrambling to her feet.

"Only by about thirty minutes," he replied. Ami gulped. Pein hated tardiness. One minute was unforgivable. By five minutes, pleading for mercy might work, if he was in a good mood. By ten minutes, it would probably be better to commit seppuku than to show up at all.

"Why did you wake up so late, anyways?" he asked curiously. Ever since her arrival at Akatsuki, she'd learned to wake up at dawn to avoid the hassle of fighting seven guys for the bathroom. "How long did you sleep for?"

"I don't know," she replied.

Pein stopped and turned around to frown at her. "Did you stay up late to train by yourself?"

"No," she replied truthfully.

The orange-haired shinobi stared at her for a few minutes, but her expression didn't change. He still didn't believe her, but he also couldn't prove that she was lying.

"Very well," he finally said. "Let's begin. Henge no Jutsu."

"Henge!" Ami transformed into an exact replica of him. Pein's eyes widened in surprise. She had used only the minimal amount of chakra needed to complete the Academy-level jutsu. The day before, she had struggled to complete it with all her chakra reserves.

Pein was suspicious, but he didn't want to comment on it. "Very good. Now the Clone Technique."

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Again, Pein was startled by her performance. The room was filled with dozens of bunshins, whereas yesterday she had barely managed three.

"Ami, did you lie to me about training last night?" he demanded.

This time, a slightly guilty expression crossed her face. "N-no!" she replied. "I-I guess a good night's sleep was all I needed!"

And the award for the worst liar in the world goes to…Ami!

"So you fell asleep at the breakfast table because?" Pein asked.

"Can we focus on training?" Ami asked quickly. "Please?"

The Akatsuki leader shook his head in annoyance, but sighed and gave in. "Fine. The next technique is Kawarimi."

* * *

"I'm sure she's been getting help," Pein muttered to Konan after the lesson. He'd sent Ami along for sparring practice and called up the member that he trusted the most to discuss his concerns. "The only way she could have mastered those techniques so quickly was through the use of her kekkai genkai."

"Or maybe she's finally getting her memories back," Konan suggested. "After all, she already had a lot of skill when we found her, though she was weakened by her lack of knowledge of the basics. But she couldn't have gained those skills without formal training, so she must have learned those techniques before."

"You think she's just starting to remember her formal training now?" Pein asked. The kunoichi nodded. "Perhaps you're right," he said, though he didn't really believe it.

"The important thing is that she is growing stronger quickly," Konan added. "Then she can help us with our plans."

The leader nodded. "That's true."

* * *

Sasori couldn't sleep, not that the puppet needed much sleep anyways. One of the benefits of being made of wood was not needing to rest and let your cells divide and stuff. But even so, it was still nice to relax and sleep after a long day of work.

_And it had been a long day_, he grumbled. Between doing a mission with his pathetic excuse of an artist partner, supervising the little brat's target practice since Itachi was out of town, and finding three new bodies to be turned into puppets, he was ready for sleep.

But sleep still wouldn't come.

With an irritated sigh, Sasori sat up and pulled his Akatsuki cloak on. A walk might clear his mind.

He opened the door, only to crash into someone else stumbling down the hall. "Hey!" he snapped as the other person fell to the ground. "Watch where you're going!"

"Why don't you?" He rolled his eyes. _Great_. Just what he needed to deal with. The little brat.

"What are you doing?" he snapped.

Ami gave him an incredulous look, which he couldn't see in the dark. "What does it look like? You knocked me over! What is your puppet body made up of, steel?"

"Actually, just snakewood," he replied. "It's the hardest kind of wood in the world and-"

"That," she growled, "was a rhetorical question."

"I know," he replied. "So what were you doing? Training again?"

He was expecting her to roll her eyes and mutter, "Whatever." Instead, she jumped to her feet, nervously rubbing the back of her neck. "What on earth gave you that idea?" she asked.

Sasori raised his wooden eyebrows. "Really, Ami? You know Pein doesn't want you training without supervision," he snapped.

"Well, I just want to get stronger!" she whined. "What's wrong with that?"

"Remember the time when you practiced taijutsu for hours outside and wound up nearly destroying your leg?" he asked.

"It was just a torn ligament, I could-" she began.

"Or that time you did genjutsu training until a migraine nearly killed your prefrontal cortex?"

"But I figured it out in the end and-"

"Or the time you wound up paralyzed for two days because you depleted your chakra doing water-walking up a waterfall?" He stuck his hands in his pockets and raised an eyebrow.

Ami glared at him. "Fine, you may have a point." Sasori smirked. "But I'm not training unsupervised!"

That caught the redhead's attention. "Really? So who's helping you?" He glanced down the hall at the other members' rooms. Each door was closed and he could hear Hidan, Kisame, and Zetsu's loud snoring. From Deidara's room came a whistling noise, which they both knew to be the snoring sound the mouths on his hands made. In short, all the members besides Konan and Pein were most certainly asleep.

As for Konan, she always got exactly nine hours of sleep and everyone did their best to keep it that way. Any less than that and she would turn into a raging demon beast that was worse than any female PMS-ing.

Pein, he couldn't be so sure about, as he had no idea how Paths were supposed to rest, but Sasori suspected that their Leader wasn't training the little brat. He could barely stand to put up with her for more than an hour at a time, anyways.

All of this thinking took approximately 0.320 seconds and he turned towards the kunoichi sternly. "Everyone's asleep, Ami," he informed her, noting the way her eyes nervously shifted to look at the ceiling. "Who's training you?"

"Lay off it, Sasori-san," she replied. "I'm going to bed."

As she walked away, he frowned, sensing an oddly familiar chakra coming from her that definitely wasn't hers.

He had a hunch that he sincerely hoped wasn't true, but he turned the way that she'd come and headed outside to the training field. Once there, it was obvious. The training field reeked of a very familiar ex-Akatsuki member's chakra.

His eyes narrowed. "Orochimaru."

* * *

Pein scowled up at the puppet. "Tell me you're lying."

Sasori matched the glare as he replied, "I worked with the Sannin for years. You think I wouldn't recognize his chakra?"

"But Orochimaru would know better than to just leave traces of it everywhere," Pein protested.

"I agree," Sasori nodded. "He would have covered up his tracks. He's planning something and I know it has to do with the little brat."

Pein paused for a moment and frowned. "You know how you call both Deidara and Ami 'brat'? It gets confusing sometimes."

"I call Deidara 'brat' and Ami 'little brat'," Sasori argued. "There's a difference."

"No one pays attention to that," Pein snorted. "Can't you just call them by their names?"

Sasori pretended not to hear that. "How about I call her 'spoiled princess'?" he suggested.

Pein thought about it, but shook his head. "No, that's too long. What about just 'princess'?"

"Fine. Princess," Sasori grumbled.

"So Orochimaru wants something to do with Ami?" Pein asked.

"Yeah, I think he's planning something for her, just as he was with Itachi," Sasori replied. "Princess has been sneaking out at night to train with him."

"So that's how she's been improving so quickly," Pein murmured. "I should've known someone was helping her." He folded his hands on his desk and looked up at the puppet master. "You know, it might not be such a bad thing that he's helping her."

"Are you insane?" Sasori retorted. "This is Orochimaru we're talking about. He's a sociopath. He doesn't do anything for anyone unless that he gains everything and that person loses their life."

"What would his motive be, then?" Pein snapped.

"Hell if I know!" Sasori growled.

"Then what are we supposed to do to stop it?" Pein asked. "Maybe it's harmless."

"And maybe I'm a real boy," Sasori muttered.

"I thought you hated that joke," Pein asked.

"Yeah, well it seemed appropriate here," Sasori replied.

Pein smirked before saying, "Anyways, there's nothing we can do about Orochimaru until we find out his motives."

Sasori spun on his heel and stalked out of the room, still scowling. He didn't trust his old partner and knew too well what the snake sannin was capable of. "By that time, it'll be too late," he muttered.

* * *

The next night, Ami slipped outside and to the training field again. She was getting used to the lack of sleep. Sleep was inconsequential when it came to getting strong enough to take her revenge.

She sat down in the middle of the field to meditate. It would be a few minutes before Orochimaru sent out one of his snakes to attack her and see how she would react. After that, the snake nin himself would show up.

Eyes closed, she was just beginning to get into the rhythm of her breathing, when she heard the soft rustle of grass behind her. She jumped to her feet, a kunai in hand, but before she could even open her eyes, there came a familiar rattling sound. In the next instant, she smelled blood.

"Sasori-san!" she hissed. "What are you doing?"

The puppet scowled, or at least, she guessed he was scowling. It was hard to tell with him sitting inside Hiruko and everything. The long scorpion tail carefully scooped up the dead snake that had been creeping up on her and tossed it aside. "Orochimaru! I know you're there. Come out!"

"Kukuku." Orochimaru's face appeared in the shadows. "Good to see you again, my dear partner."

"Wish I could say the same," Sasori growled.

Ami looked between the two shinobi, confused. "Wait, you guys know each other?"

"Of course," Orochimaru replied. "Sasori-chan and I used to be dear friends. We completed lots of missions together."

"You were in Akatsuki?" she gasped, staring at him.

Sasori huffed. "Yeah, Leader's only mentioned that about twenty times. Don't you ever listen to anything he says?"

"Um…" She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. Not that the puppet could blame her, of course. Pein's speeches were notoriously boring and monotonous.

"Mind telling me why you were keeping this a secret, princess?" Sasori asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Princess?" she repeated.

"Apparently, calling you 'little brat' gets too confusing," Sasori replied. She stared at him blankly. "It's a long story."

Orochimaru smiled, his purple tongue darting out of his mouth and running over his lips. "Now that you're here, old friend, I guess I have to end the fun sooner than I'd wanted to." Sliding up his sleeve, he placed a hand on the black marks.

There was a puff and a giant purple snake with four horns appeared. "What do you want now?" it grumbled.

"Take that girl in for safe-keeping," Orochimaru replied, pointing at Ami. "I'll finish things up here."

Sasori's eyes widened inside Hiruko. "Manda! What did you summon Manda for?"

The snake grumbled something about "not being a babysitter," before slowly swinging its massive head towards Ami. The kunoichi froze, petrified by its piercing green eyes and the massive snake opened its jaws to swallow her whole.

"Oi! Run, baka!" Sasori hollered.

With a quick shake of her head, Ami snapped out of her trance. But it was too late, as Manda's jaws closed around her. Suddenly, the snake made a face of disgust and spat out…a log.

From her safe hiding place in a tree, Ami peered down at the now-pissed snake. "Brat! How dare you trick me?" Manda bellowed.

"I'm a shinobi!" she hollered back. "That's my job." Drawing her hand back, she tossed a handful of kunai and shuriken, all of which bounced off the snake's thick hide. Manda sneered at her in disgust, before diving underground. Ami looked around warily, expecting the snake to come bursting out at her at any moment.

"At least she didn't miss," Sasori muttered, before lashing his tail out to block a wave of weapons coming from Orochimaru. "Is that all you have, old friend?"

"No," came the reply from behind him as the snake nin melted into a pile of mud. "I have several more tricks up my sleeves." The sannin punched at Sasori from behind. Several snakes coiled around his arms shot forward to pin the puppet in place.

Sasori merely smirked to himself, and, with a twitch of his fingers, lashed the puppet's tail again and knocked the snakes out of the way. But to his surprise, instead of flying to the side, the snakes formed a chain, some wrapping around the tail, others latching onto their bodies and hooking themselves around trees. Sasori furiously tugged at the chakra strings controlling Hiruko, but it was no use. He was trapped.

"Sasori-san!" Ami called, rushing towards him.

"Don't! It's a trap!" he hollered, but she didn't seem to hear him. Manda suddenly shot out of the ground, its jaws wide open. Ami didn't even get a chance to slow down. With her momentum, she practically jumped into the snake's mouth.

"Ami!" Sasori yelled.

Manda made a face. "The log tasted better," he grumbled, before vanishing.

"Let her go!" Sasori snapped at Orochimaru, lunging forward as much as he could. "What do you need her for, anyways?"

Orochimaru laughed his annoying "kukuku" laugh. "That is for me to know, my dear old friend." He snapped his fingers and the snakes vanished, but Sasori found himself still unable to move. "I had my snakes spit tree sap into Hiruko's joints. I'll be surprised if you can move for another few hours or so." He turned around to walk away, calling over his shoulder, "You really might want to move, though. I wouldn't stay where you are if I were you, especially not with that body of yours."

Sasori frowned, wondering what the sannin was talking about. That's when he heard the gnawing sound that was every homeowner, puppet master, and human puppet's worst nightmare, eliciting a spew of colorful words that Hidan would have been proud of.

Termites.

* * *

Orochimaru is here? Well, you can't exactly leave him out when dojutsu are involved.

A couple disclaimers: The training methods used in this chapter are completely made by me. I have no idea how a blind shinobi would actually train, but it made sense to me. Hopefully, it made sense to you guys too.

Read and review!


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